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EDUCATION AND ART 

IN 

SOVIET RUSSIA 

In the Light of 

OFFICIAL DECREES AND DOCUMENTS 
with a Foreword by MAX EASTMAN 



Price, 15 Cents 



THE SOCIALIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

15 SPRUCE STREET NEW YORK CITY 



EDUCATION AND ART IN 
SOVIET RUSSIA 

In the Light of 
OFFICIAL DECREES AND DOCUMENTS 

with a Foreword by MAX EASTMAN 



THE SOCIALIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

15 SPRUCE STREET NEW YORK CITY 



FOREWORD 

When we read in the newspapers that people are being 
executed in hundreds by the Soviet government in Russia, that 
thousands are being assaulted and shot dead in the streets, or 
shooting themselves through fear and desperation, and when we 
read that the industrial disorganization is so great that the whole 
population is starving and people are dying at the rate of several 
hundred a day in Moscow and Petrograd, we feel that the condi- 
tion in that land is desperate indeed. And yet that is merely a 
feeling, it is not a fact. 

People are dying at the rate of two or three hundred a day 
on Manhattan Island alone. Many of them are dying from 
starvation. The president of the American Public Health Asso- 
ciation is quoted as saying that 3,000,000 American children go 
hungry to school every morning. We commit 20 or 30 murders 
a day in the United States. We rob, rape and assault in propor- 
tion. We hang or electrocute a man or a woman every third 
day. Once in every four days we lynch, burn at the stake, or 
torture to death a defenseless human being without any pretense 
at legal procedure. The conditions of life in the United States 
are so appalling that our starved, desperate and degenerated citi- 
zens are committing suicide at the rate of one every half hour ! 

If a foreign correspondent should deliberately set out to tell 
all the bad things that can be told about the United States, and 
none of the good, he could, without any actual lying, make this 
country look like the bottom of the inferno. And that is exactly 
what the foreign correspondents in Russia have done — and be- 
sides doing that they have indulged in a stupendous and organ- 
ized campaign of criminal lying. And if any correspondent has 
been impelled to do otherwise, his dispatches have been sup- 
pressed in transit or upon their arrival in this country. One 
such correspondent, a representative of the Associated Press, 
told me that 58 per cent of the dispatches he sent out from 
Moscow were suppressed by the British Government before they 
ever arrived on our shores. The rest of them were mangled or 



distorted by our own censors and headline writers until it was 
assured that not one golden grain of favorable truth about the 
Soviet Republic ever fell under the eyes of the American public. 

Of course, in Russia it is especially easy to find the bad things 
to tell — the things that will convey an impression of complete 
barbarity and misery and the dissolution of civilization. Russia 
was a relatively illiterate country in the first place; it was stripped 
bare by the war, and bereaved of millions of its strongest young 
men; it has just passed through the most profound revolution in 
history, and the revolution has been complicated by the chaotic 
self-demobilization of an army of ten or twelve million men, and 
by the necessity of withstanding a counter-revolutionary foreign 
invasion. Obviously under such circumstances all those grue- 
some statistics of our human existence that we usually ignore, 
would show a morbid increase in Russia. There is nothing, how- 
ever, in any press dispatch having a reasonable degree of credi- 
bility, to make a person who is familiar with such statistics feel 
unduly excited, or in the least degree inclined to despair of the 
success of the great social experiment that is being conducted 
by the Soviet government. It is only necessary that some avenues 
of publicity shall be established, which are not in the control of 
the counter-revolutionary interests, and which will, therefore, 
let us read the good things, as well as the bad, which can be said 
about conditions under that government. 

In this little book are contained, I think, the most important 
of all the good things. And I write this foreword in order to 
urge every American who cares about truth and even-handed 
justice to assist in giving it a share of publicity equal to that 
which has been given to the so-called "crimes of the Soviet Gov- 
ernment." We learn in this book that after all the futile yearn- 
ings of the idealists through the ages, a powerful government 
has at last set out with resolute purpose, unclouded with any 
contrary economic motive, to make a complete and high educa- 
tion accessible to all of its one hundred and fifty millions of 
people without bias or exception. To those who know anything 
about the world, and the sad history of the great hopes of the 
world, that is almost the most important fact in the record of 
these times. No political or military event could possibly be 
more important than that. And yet that fact has never received 
the space of a single paragraph in the news columns of any of 



our great daily papers.* It is to the general American public 
absolutely unknown. Let it be your task — you who happen upon 
this volume — to make it known. 

One cannot read these idealistic experimental decrees of the 
Soviet Bureau of Education, and the firm clear-minded report of 
the humanitarian scholar, Lunacharsky, without travelling back 
in his thoughts to Plato's Republic — the great book of the political 
hopes of mankind. For in that book these hopes rested alto- 
gether upon the faith of its author in the power of education. 
He believed a republic to be possible in which men should be 
happy in a common ownership of capital, and in which there 
should be an "aristocracy," not of wealth, but of real merit and 
ability. But he knew that such a republic would never be realized 
in human history until someone who desired it came into the 
possession of absolute power and immediately devoted himseif\ 
to the problem of education. He thought of this "someone" 
as the son of a king. He thought that the world must wait until 
by some grand lucky chance a "philosopher" — that is, a man of 
the highest impersonal wisdom and motivation — should be born 
to the throne. And he was so sure that even this almighty 
imaginary savior could do nothing except by revolutionizing the 
educational system, that he declared, with humorous exaggera- 
tion, that the first act of his government would be to "send out 
into the country all the inhabitants of the city who are more than 
ten years old, and take possession of their children, who will be 
unaffected by the habits of their parents." 

The aspiring heart of the world has never for a single moment 
forgotten Plato's hope. It has steadily refused to believe that the 
ideal republic is merely an abstract dream. In its dark sorrow 

* We were learning some time ago to discredit the picture of 
events that is presented in our daily papers. We supplemented that 
with the reading of news-articles in some of the popular magazines, 
whose editors assumed a more serious responsibility for statements of 
fact. The degree to which these editors also have thrown all truth 
and honorable responsibility to the winds in the matter of Russia is 
suggested in this statement signed by the editors of McClure's (Jan- 
iiar}', 1919): "Throughout Russia tens of thousands are being officially 
executed merely because they are educated." 

Compare that statement with the facts reported in this volume, 
and estimate the editors of McClure's accordingly. It would not have 
taken them two hour? to possess these facts at the time they made 
that statement. 



and continual misery of broken efforts and aspirations, it has 
waited for the king's son to come. And now, after twenty-two 
hundred years, the king's son has come. But he has come in 
overalls and old clothes of the farm, and the heart of the world 
is slow indeed to recognize him and acknowledge his triumphant 
power. Just as the rabbis of Jerusalem were unable to recognize 
their Messiah in the carpenter of Nazareth who rode into 
their city on an ass, so the high priests of democracy and of 
"social science" cannot give their allegiance to the real savior 
of mankind, the revolutionary proletariat. They cannot divorce 
their idea of what is wise and fine from what is well-clothed and 
respectable. They are still bound by the habits of the old kind 
of aristocracy, and so they are powerless even to extend a hand 
of welcome to the new. 

And yet, how obvious it seems to have been all along ! A society 
in which one class of the people lives and finds leisure for 
"ideals," only because it exploits another class and deprives 
them of life, cannot possibly realize those of its ideals which are 
humane and just. To create a beautiful political thing out of 
the materials of human nature in such conditions, is utterly im- 
possible. The most benevolent of reformers cannot even begin 
to do it, for they are destroyed and their effort is destroyed by 
the blind instinct of self-preservation in that upper class which 
holds the power of wealth. Even the philosopher-king, as Plato 
himself realized, would succeed only in becoming a martyr to 
this power that is behind all thrones. "And yet in the whole 
course of the ages," he said sadly, "perhaps a single one may 
be saved." 

It was altogether impossible that a tyrant-philosopher should 
communize the world — and equally impossible that the tyrant 
class should be persuaded to relinquish its privilege little by 
little in behalf of a more ideal society — -an impossible dream. 
Nature's force of self-interest is too strong. But it was not 
impossible that the members of the exploited class themselves, 
instead of trying each one individually to climb out into the 
tyrant class, should band themselves together to conquer the 
tyrant, abolish the system of exploitation altogether, and begin 
the building of an ideal republic. That was possible, because 
the self-interest of these classes when banded together happens 
to be in general accord with that impersonal wisdom which Plato 
attributed to the philosopher, and they happen through the evolu- 



tion of industry to have acquired a power greater than could 
ever have fallen to the son of a king. And so in our century, in 
the old empire of Russia, that miracle for which Plato so wist- 
fully waited has come. Someone who desires a common owner- 
ship of capital, and am aristocracy not of wealth but of real 
merit and ability, has come into the possession of absolute power. 
And what we learn in the leaves of this book is the joyful news 
that this great savior of the world has proceeded at once, and 
with all the power, energy, brains and wealth at his disposal, 
to make permanent the growth of the seeds of the republic, by 
revolutionizing the system of education. 

It is a great deal to say that the self-interest of the lower 
classes when banded together accords with an impersonal inter- 
est in the welfare of man. The assertion rests, of course, upon 
profounder considerations than can be advanced here. But 
whatever exceptions must be made to it, they do not appear in 
the material which is presented in this volume. These documents 
reveal not only a determination to make the schools of the New 
Russia "revolutionary," but also, and still more clearly, a deter- 
mination to make them wise. It seems as though the very genius 
of Plato — who is the spiritual father of the "modern movement" 
in education — presides over this bureau of the people's enlighten- 
ment. I believe the most advanced philosophers of that modern 
movement — which is in our country for the most part merely 
a speculation — will find themselves at home in these reports of 
what is beginning to be done in Russia. To me, at least, much 
as I have believed in the possibility of ideal developments once 
the capitalistic obstacle was removed, the degree in which such 
a development appears already in these fragments of the most 
vital news from Moscow, is astonishing. I want to add to them 
a paragraph which appeared in the very first decree of the 
Commissar of Education, issued in the days immediately follow- 
ing the Bolshevik revolution. I quote it from the Appendix of 
John Reed's book, "Ten Days that Shook the World" : 

"One must emphasize the difference between instruction and 
education. Instruction is the transmission of ready knowledge 
by the teacher to his pupil. Education is a creative process. The 
personality of the individual is being 'educated' throughout life, 
is being formed, grows richer in content, stronger and more 
perfect. 

"The toiling masses of the people — the workmen, the peas- 



ants, the soldiers — are thirsting for elementary and advanced 
instruction. But they are also thirsting for education. Not the 
government, nor the intellectuals, nor any other power outside 
of themselves, can give it to them. The school, the book, the 
theatre, the museum, etc., may here be only aids. They have their 
own ideas formed by their social position, so different from the 
position of those ruling classes and intellectuals who have hitherto 
created culture. They have their own ideas, their own emotions, 
their own ways of approaching the problems of personality and 
society. The city laborer, according to his own fashion, the 
rural toiler according to his, will each build his clear world-con- 
cept permeated with the class-idea of the workers. There is no 
more superb or beautiful phenomenon than the one of which 
our nearest descendants will be both witnesses and participants : 
the building by collective Labor of its own general, rich and 
free soul." 

There is here no intimation of any narrow or temporary pur- 
pose—even the purpose to perpetuate the insurrection, which 
might at that time have dominated every mind. It is only the 
broadest and fullest expression of the impulse of mankind in 
social communion to grow. We do not yet know how strong 
or general that impulse is, nor how much the inexorable facts 
of nature may impede it, but we see it at last set free from the 
one age-long, dark, compressive force of economic tyranny, and 
we are justified in feeling an emotion of joyful and creative hope. 

"The problems that face us are great, responsible and press- 
ing," says the appeal of the Proletarian Cultural Organization, 
"but we believe that the forces which will come to our assistance 
are also great." To that message of courageous faith it is the 
duty of every understanding idealist in every land to respond. 

MAX EASTMAN. 



Education and Art in Soviet Russia 

Being a Set of Important Decrees and Documents Published 

in Russia, with a Few Explanatory Remarks for 

American Readers 

With a Foreword by Max Eastman 



I. The Organization of the Educational System 

After the installation of proletarian dictatorship in Russia, 
following the proletarian revolution of November 7, 1917, 
(October 25, old style), all branches of the government were 
of course reorganized on the basis of the new source from 
which the government derived its power. The application of 
this process of transformation to the Department of Educa- 
tion is announced in the following Document (No. 1), issued 
by the newly appointed People's Commissaire of Education, 
A. V. Lunacharsky, one of the most distinguished publicists 
and scholars of Russia : 

DOCUMENT No. 1 

Circular of the People's Commissaire of Education to All 
Regional Commissioners of Education 

On the 25th of October, 1917, the entire state power was taken 
over by the Government of Workers and Peasants. The latter has 
given over all the Ministries to the People's Commissaires. The Min- 
istries are re-named People's Commissariats. 

The following Departments of the People's Commissariats of 
Education have been organized: 

1. Universal compulsory education. 

2. Autonomy of colleges and universities. 

3. Ministerial schools, (until they are transferred to munici- 
palities). 

4. Municipal public schools. 

5. Kindergarten education and children's aid. 

6. Home education and people's universities. 

7. Aid to independent school organizations. 



8. Scientific Department. 

9. Art Departments. 

10. Experimental pedagogy and school medicine and hygiene. 

11. Financial Department. 

12. Technical schools and polytechnical education. 

13. Preparation of a teaching staff. 

14. Construction of new schools. 

15. Department of Literature and Publishing. 

16. Statistical Department. 

17. Organization Department. 

In view of the above, you are instructed to proceed with the 
work with which you are charged in regard to public education. 
When doubts and difficulties arise in the performance of your duties, 
you will apply for instructions and explanations to the People's Com- 
missariat of Education. 

It is hereby decreed that all those who wilfully, and without 
notice, cease to perform their duties, or in any way try to disorganize 
the work of education, will be dismissed immediately. 

People's Commissaire of Education: A. V. Lunacharsky. 
Secretary: Dm. Letshenko. 

Published in the organ of the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' 
Government, No. 21, December 24th, 1917. 

(Note: Each decree of the Soviet of Workers and Peasants be- 
comes effective and must be enforced upon its publication in the 
official organ of the government.) 

As the above circular is dated Dec. 24, 1917, it is apparent 
that within two months after their accession to power, the Soviet 
had already outlined an extensive educational program. The next 
Document (No. 2) is a detailed statement of the various func- 
tions of the educational departments of the geographical units 
of the Soviet Republic, in the form of a decree, and of their 
mutual responsibilities. 

DOCUMENT No. 2 

Decree of the Workers' 'and. Peasants' Government 

Provision for the Organization of Popular Education in the Russian 

Socialist Soviet Republic. 

1. General direction of work connected with popular education 
in the Russian Federated Socialist Soviet Republic is entrusted to a 
State Commission of Education, whose chairman is the People's 
Commissaire of Education. 

10 



2. The membership of the State Commission is as follows: 

(a) By Appointment — Members of the Commissariat's Col- 
legium; all department heads of the Commissariat; the chief clerk of 
the Commissariat and the secretary of the State Commission. 

(b) Elected — Three representatives of the Central Executive 
Committee; three representatives of professional teachers' organiza- 
tions accepting the platform of the Soviet Government; two repre- 
sentatives of the Central Bureau of Trade Unions, one representative 
of the Central Bureau of Labor Cooperatives and one representative 
of the Central Culture Organization. 

(c) In the Capacity of Representatives of Departments — One 
member of the Commissariat of Education in charge of the Bureau 
of Nationalities and one member of the Supreme Soviet of National 
Economy. 

Note 1. The right is reserved for the delegates of the People's 
Commissariat in charge of nationalities to invite to the session oF the 
State Commission, in advisory capacity, a representative of the 
nationality whose cultural institutions are under discussion at the 
particular session. 

Note 2. In the course of the formation of new regional divi- 
sions, their representatives, one from each region, become members 
of the State Commission, with the "right to vote. 

Note 3. The State Commission has also the right to augment 
its membership with representatives of other organizations — cultural, 
professional, student, etc. — in case these organizations have a clearly 
defined all-Russian character and accept the platform of the Soviet 
Government. 

3. The management of the People's Commissariat of Education 
is placed in the hands of a Collegium including: The People's Com- 
missaire, his assistant, and five members. 

4. The People's Commissaire is elected by the Central Executive 
Committee of the Soviet of Workers', Peasants', Red Guard Army 
and Cossacks' Deputies; the assistant of the People's Commissaire 
and the member of the Collegium are elected by the Soviet of 
People's Commrssaires at the recommendation of the People's Com- 
missaire of Education. 

5. The Collegium appoints directors to various Departments of 
the Commissariat, a chief clerk of the Commissariat and a secretary 
of the State Commission of Education. 

6. In addition to matters enumerated in other articles of this 
act the following duties are also within the jurisdiction of the State 
Commission: The formulation of a general plan of People's Educa- 
tion in the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic, and the estab- 
lishment of fundamental principles governing the people's education, 
as well as those of school reconstruction; the coordination of cul- 
tural activities in the localities; the drafting of a budget and the 
disiribution of funds appropriated for common federal cultural needs; 
as well as other matters of fundamental significance submitted for 

11 



consideration to the State Commission by the Commissariat's 
Collegium. 

Note. — Individual members of the State Commission have the 
right to demand a discussion of matters they consider of prime im- 
portance only in case their statement is sustained by. not less than 
one-third of all the members of the Commission. 

7. In addition to matters enumerated in other articles of this 
statement, the People's Commissariat of Education has direct charge 
of institutions of learning and academic instruction of a state-wide 
importance, and passes its final judgment on questions and conflicts 
arising between the various organizations of educational nature. 

8. The State Commission calls and convenes, periodically, an 
All-Russian Congress of Education, to which it submits a report of 
its activity and to whose consideration it submits for discussion ques- 
tions of great importance coming within the jurisdicton of the State 
Commission. 

9. An All- Russian Congress of Education comprises: (a) elected 
representatives of Departments and Soviets of People's Education 
from each province (gubernia) in the following ratio: One repre- 
sentative from each Provincial Department and Soviet; from all 
County Departments and Soviets of the province — two from Depart- 
ments and two from the Soviets; from all Volost Soviets and Depart- 
ments, also two from the Soviets and two from the Departments of 
each province; (b) full representation of the State Commission; (c) 
competent persons in advisory capacity. 

10. The direction of affairs connected with people's education, 
such as primary education and self-instruction outside the academic 
walls, with the exception of higher education, is entrusted to Depart- 
ments of People's Education, appropriately organized in Executive 
Committees: — Regional, Provincial, County and Volost. 

11. The Soviet of People's Education functions as a controlling 
and advisory organ attached to each Department of People's Edu- 
cation. e 

12.. All Departments and Soviets of People's Education act 
within boundaries established by the fundamental laws of the Re- 
public; coordinate their activities in accordance with enactments of 
the State Commission of Education; and follow instructions in this 
order: Volost follows instructions of county; county — of provincial; 
and provincial — of regional departments of People's Education. 

13. A Volost Department of People's Education consists of 
members, not less than three in number, elected by the executive 
committee of the Volost Soviet of Workmen's Deputies, forming thus 
a Collegium. 

Note. — The right is granted to a Volost Department to augment 
its membership by inviting representatives of settlements and volosts, 
in an advisory capacity. 

14. A Volost Department of People's Education is entrusted 

12 



with carrying into effect the principle of universal literacy within 
the boundaries of the particular volost; it shall organize social educa- 
tion and spread education through the entire volost population and 
aid in the development of the initiative of the population in matters 
of people's education. 

15. For the realization of aims enumerated in Article 1, the De- 
partment of People's Education: (a) takes all measures for carrying 
into execution the provisions drafted by the State Commissions of 
Education, particularly those relating to a general program of edu- 
cation; (b) has charge of schools and cultural and educational insti- 
tutions, in conformity with corresponding orders of the State Com- 
mission and direct instructions of the County Department of People's 
Education; (c) drafts estimates and submits them for approval to the 
County Department of People's Education, should a need arise for 
using county funds; (d) submits to the County Department of 
People's Education a report on its activity and state of affairs in 
regard to people's education, these reports being submitted at desig- 
nated periods, but not less than twice a year; (e) collects and supervises 
statistics of children of primary and school age and supervises their 
school attendance; (f) draws and supervises lists of candidates quali- 
fying for the position of a teacher or director of institutions of 
primary education and, in cooperation with the Soviet of People's 
Education, organizes elections of teachers by the population; (g) calls 
and convenes, at appointed times, a Volost Soviet of People's Educa- 
tion; (h) submits to the Soviet of People's Education detailed reports 
on its activity and acquaints the S. P. E. with legislative and govern- 
mental enactments in their field . 

16. A Volost Soviet of People's Education is formed of: (a) rep- 
resentatives of all bodies having the right to send delegates to the 
Soviet of Workers' Deputies, representations being the same as those 
of the collectives in the S. W. D.; (b) representatives of the teaching 
staff and those of pupils; (c) competent persons invited in advisory 
capacity. 

Note 1. — The whole number of members of the Soviet of People's 
Education elected by the teachers and pupils must not exceed one- 
third of the whole number of members of the S. P. E., with the right 
to vote. 

17. Sessions of the Volost Soviet of People's Education are open. 

18. Sessions of the Volost S. P. E. are all held at least once a 
month. 

19. A Volost Soviet of People's Education discusses the reports 
of the Supreme Department of People's Education, analyzes the De- 
partment reports on pressing legislative and other governmental acts 
and discusses the plan of organization pertaining to people's education 
within the volost. 

21. A County Department of People's Education is formed of 
members, not fewer than five, elected by the Executive Committee 
of the County's S. W. D., thus forming Collegiums. 

13 



22. A County Department of People's Education has the follow- 
ing subdivisions: primary education, school education and self-educa- 
tion outside academic walls : — the charge of which subdivisions may be 
entrusted to specially invited experts by the Department. 

23. In addition to matters enumerated in other articles of this 
provision, a County Department of People's Education directs the 
whole business of People's Education in the county; has charge of all 
educational institutions; corrects and approves estimates of Volost 
Departments of People's Education, should a need arise for using 
county funds; organizes the provision and distribution among the 
Volost Departments of the books and school appliances; issues in- 
structions to Volost Departments of People's Education, calls and 
convenes at appointed periods County Soviets of People's Educa- 
tion, and submits annual estimates to the Provincial Department of 
People's Education. 

24. The membership, problems and the order of business of a 
County Soviet of People's Education are to be determined, within the 
area of its jurisdiction, in accordance with Articles 16, 17, 19 and 20 
of this Provision. 

Note 1. — A County Soviet of People's Education convenes not 
less than once in two months. 

25. A Provincial Department of People's Education is composed 
of members, not Jess than seven, elected by Executive Committees of 
the Provincial Soviet of Workers' Deputies and thus forming a 
Collegium. 

26. In addition to matters enumerated in other articles of this 
Provision, a Provincial Department of People's Education establishes 
institutions of learning, academic instruction and education of general 
provincial importance; issues instructions to the County and Volost 
Departments of People's Education; examines and approves annual 
estimates, submitted by county departments of people's education; 
submits an annual estimate to the Regional Department of People's 
Education; calls periodic conferences of representatives of County 
Departments of People's Education, as well as all-provincial con- 
gresses of active social workers for the promotion of people's edu- 
cation; drafts reports on the state of affairs of people's education in 
the particular province. 

27. The duties of Provincial Soviets of People's Education are: 
to determine provincial needs pertaining to education; to prepare and 
develop general measures for promotion of education among the 
population of the province; to develop projects on school reform; to 
aid the Regional Department of People's Education in carrying into 
execution provisions established by the state commission of educa- 
tion. 

28. A Regional Soviet of People's Education is formed and acts 
in accordance with Articles 16, 17, 19, 20 and 24 of this Provision. 

Note. — Capital cities are regarded as separate provinces and are 
directly subordinated to Regional Departments. 

14 



29. A Regional Department of People's Education is composed 
of members, not fewer than seven, elected by a Congress of Soviets 
of Workmen's Deputies of a Region, thus forming a Collegium. 

30. A Regional Department of People's Education develops and 
approves a plan of all-regional measures pertaining to people's edu- 
cation; systematizes all annual estimates submitted by the various 

-Provincial Departments of People's Education; calls periodic Re- 
gional Educational Congresses; opens educational courses, exhibi- 
tions, excursions, etc., controls the activity of cultural and educa- 
tional institutions within boundaries prescribed by corresponding 
legislative enactments; and submits an annual report on the state 
of affairs in the sphere of people's education to the State Commission 
of Education. 

Chairman of the Soviet of People's CommissaireSj 
, V. Ulianov (Lenin). 

Acting People's Commissary of Education, Michael 
Pokrovsky. 

Chief Clerk of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, 
V. Bonch-Bruevich. 

Correct: Secretary of the Soviet, N. Gorbunov. 

The above document is a clear, sober set of rules, suggest- 
ing- anything but anarchy in the administration of the educa- 
tional system, and differing fom corresponding laws of other 
countries only in the remarkable clarity of the legal 
phraseology. 

But while Document No. 2 is a legal paper, giving neces- 
sary instructions only, Document No. 3, which follows, is a 
personal expression, by one of the educational specialists of 
the Soviet Government, of the philosophy and purposes of the 
new system. It is characterized throughout by a constructive 
humanitarian spirit. 

DOCUMENT No. 3 

SCHOOL REFORM 

Commissary Lepeshinsky's Paper, Read at the First All- 

Russian Congress of Teachers-Internationalists, 

June 2, 1918 

The Commissariat of People's Education has as yet done 
very little in the field of reforms in popular education, since 
this problem could be approached intelligently only after the 
removal of the Commissariat to Moscow. 

15 



It has become customary to accuse the new Government 
of indifference toward the cultural values of the past, and, 
particularly, of disrupting the schools. Such an accusation is 
obviously wrong. In so far as the school stands for wrong 
principles, breeding privileges and a spirit of utilitarianism, 
and is a servant of the ruling classes, it has been destroyed. 
Such a school system was an instrument to befog the con- 
sciousness of the masses and crippled the children physically 
and spiritually. The destruction of the old school system, as an 
integral part of the whole social structure of the past was 
brought about not by a group of individuals, but by the ele- 
mental force of life itself. History had paved the way for 
such a destruction, and it had become a pressing necessity of 
the present revolutionary period. 

It is, however, not sufficient to take notice of this spon- 
taneous destruction alone. The revolutionary classes of so- 
ciety, particularly their more advanced upper strata, their 
leading elements, must introduce into these elemental pro- 
cesses a maximum of intelligence and system. First, a surgi- 
cal application is needed to remove all useless remnants of 
the past; yet, creative activity is also needed, although it 
perhaps will, of necessity, be slow and cautious to begin with. 
The school has ceased to be an instrument in the hands of 
the exploiting classes ; with the people's victory it has in real- 
ity become a people's school. And now the Commissariat of 
Education is busily engaged in transferring it into the hands 
of the people's government — the Soviet organs. 

The school no longer needs teachers who simply are 
office holders, teachers appointed from above, teachers de- 
tached from the people. Our Commissariat emphasizes this 
circumstance and suggests the principle of electing teachers 
by local organs created by the population itself. 

The school has ceased to be a source of privileges based 
on other values than intellect and knowledge. The Commis- 
sariat, therefore, is taking prompt action to abolish diplomas 
and certificates conferring all sorts of privileges on persons 
graduated from various branches of academic training. 

The old school system was not a channel of education 
but an instrument for obscuring the mind of the people. The 
revolution has swept away this school system. Governmental 

16 



activity has brought new problems before the school. Our 
Commissariat, as an educational center, is engaged, as a first 
step, in freeing the school from church influences and en- 
croachments — the separation of the school from the church. 

These first steps are only the beginnings of the task. Be- 
fore us is still a long path of a tremendous and prolonged 
creative work of organization which shall ultimately give to 
the people the school they need in this period of reconstruct- 
ing life on a new basis — in the period of the international 
struggle of the proletariat for Socialism. 

Having this task in mind the Commissariat sounded a call 
inviting learned and practical individuals, people of extensive 
pedagogic training, to participate in this task. The Commis- 
sariat of People's Education has opened wide the doors to all 
who would and could help. Something has already been done 
in this direction. Recently we created at the Commissariat 
of People's Education an educators' advisory board which in 
turn was subdivided into a number of sub-committees, these 
latter conducting a preliminary campaign in favor of school 
reform and gradually formulating concrete problems, the so- 
lution of which should determine the substance of our activ- 
ity of school-organization. 

Our conception of a school is one from which religious 
services and teachings are absolutely barred. Secondly, a 
people's general education school must be compulsory and 
accessible to all, regardless of sex and social distinctions; it 
must be a school where tuition, books, etc., are free; and, 
lastly, we conceive of the new school as a labor unit. The 
school must be homogeneous in the sense that it is of uniform 
type, with a definite minimum amount of instruction — in the 
sense of uniformity of aims and problems grouped between 
two chief centers of gravitation — and in the producing of an 
harmonious individual with regard to his social development; 
and, finally, in the sense of establishing an organized connec- 
tion between the various school grades and unimpeded pro- 
motion of students from lower grades to higher. 

The principles underlying the development of the school, 
as a labor unit, can be summarized thus : 

1. An early fusion of productive labor with academic 

17 



instruction is the mightiest weapon in the task of reconstruct- 
ing modern society. 

2. The technology of the present mode of production de- 
mands an all-round development of the individual, who must 
possess the ability to work and be equipped with polytechnic 
knowledge for various industrial fields. Therefore, a school 
of general science must assume the character of a polytechnic 
(vocational) school, while specialization and professionalism 
are outside the scope of the general science school and are 
the problems of the higher schools, or of educational training 
outside academic walls. 

3. Manual labor must form an integral element of school 
life; all school children must participate in productive labor. 
The useful results of such labor should be made obvious to the 
students, having for its object either the direct creation of 
useful articles of consumption (chiefly for the needs of the 
particular school), or the performance of productive labor 
which onl- ultimately creates material blessings, as for 
example, caring for cleanliness, hygienic conditions of life in 
schools, etc. 

4. The school becomes a productive commune, i. e., both 
a producing and consuming body based on the following 
principles, guiding the social education of children: 

a) the principle of school autonomy and collective self- 
determination in the process of mental and manual labor; 

b) the principle of satisfying all the children's needs by 
the children themselves ; 

c) the organization of social, mental endeavor (scientific 
bodies, magazines, collective work, etc.). 

5. The school must offer the widest possible opportuni- 
ties for the full play and development of the creative forces 
of the child. To accomplish this, the child must be reared 
amidst surroundings favorable to its mental and physical 
capacity, the presence of which should favor the greatest pos- 
sible harmonious development of the child's body and soul. 
Essential prerequisites hereof are : 

a) Self-activity of children in various fields of school-life, 
their independence and initiative while at work and a spirit 
of self-reliance in matters of everyday routine; 

18 



b) introduction of an educational system stimulating the* 
creative forces of the child; 

c) artistic activity, as the chief element in the child's 
esthetic development, guiding the passive emotional processes 
of its spiritual life. 

6. The methods in the child's bringing-up and in the edu- 
cational training of children are to change their former char- 
acter in accordance with the new problems of the school. 
Attention in the matter of children's education should chiefly 
aim to bring up a human being, as a social creature, and to 
produce an understanding of social labor : first, at the present 
time; then — labor in past human history; and, last, labor's 
problems in the near future. There ought to exist a direct 
organic connection between the educational mental work in 
the school and the element of productive labor. Educational 
training is to be conducted in full conformity with the latest 
discoveries in psychology, physiology and pedagogy, and in 
particular — in the direction from the known to the unknown, 
from the concrete to the abstract. 

It seems to me that the people should receive a graded 
knowledge, and this can be made possible only when the child 
will be attached to the school for a considerable length of 
time. It is urgent to create conditions whereby the majority 
of children of school age should be forced to pass a long 
course of instruction. Compulsory schools exist in many 
countries, why not here in Russia? 

We ought not be afraid that there will be a lack of schools, 
and of teachers : we will gradually introduce an extensive edu- 
cational course and accelerate the formation of a teaching 
force. 

All persons favorably disposed towards this cause should 
be recruited ; we must also widely propagate our ideas, and, 
with this object in view, are beginning to publish our infor- 
mation bulletins on school reform work. These bulletins we 
shall freely circulate throughout Russia. However, what is 
most needed is not merely world-propaganda, but deeds. 
With this object the Commissariat of Education is organizing 
experimental schools. It would be an error to assume that 
here, in the capitals, there is a tendency to introduce bureau- 
cratic methods in the management of the schools. We wish 

19 



to impose nothing on the people, and when we draw up cer- 
tain plans, it is chiefly because the population itself, in the 
person of its organs of local social administrative units, re- 
quires from us a general outline and suggestions. 

* * * 

The next Document, No. 4, shows a serious desire on the 
part of the Soviet Government to provide teachers with ample 
and more or less uniform compensation. It is only in the 
light of such authentic documents that prejudiced utterances 
like those of Dr. Alessandro H. Carasso, in the Sunday Times 
Magazine Section of March 2, 1919, can be appraised at their 
true worth. 

DOCUMENT No. 4 

Regulation of the Soviet of People's Cornrnissaires Con- 
cerning Standard Remuneration for Teachers 5 Labors 

The Soviet of People's Cornrnissaires decrees: 

1. To establish a monthly remuneration for teachers, taking as 
a standard length of a working day four school hours a day (24 hours 
or lessons a week). 

2. Pending the establishment of a united school system, to pre- 
serve remuneration on the basis of yearly hours in secondary schools 
and wherever such remuneration has hitherto been in practice. In 
primary and higher schools, seminaries, etc., where monthly payment 
has been in force, such payments shall continue to be in force for 
teachers occupied with four hours of school work a day (24 hours a 
week). 

3. Classification of teachers into "regularly appointed," "un- 
attached," "substitutes," etc., is abolished. 

4. All teachers (regardless of the particular subject taught, in- 
cluding instructors of music, singing, domestic arts, manual labor and 
physical exercises) shall receive a remuneration for their school labor 
on the basis of common standard pay and have equal pension rights. 

5. Up to July 1, 1918, the same basis of remuneration shall be 
applied to lessons given above the prescribed 24 hours' standard. 

Note. — An increase of the number of lessons above the standard 
for individual teachers shall be made in each single case in accordance 
with a special regulation of the Department of Public Education at- 
tached to the local Soviet of Workers' Deputies. 

6. Remuneration of the labor of chairmen of pedagogic coun- 
cils, up to July 1, 1918, shall be adjusted to a remuneration on the 
basis of 12 yearly hours; vice-chairmen and members of administrative 

20 



and executive committees — six yearly hours; secretaries of pedagogic 
council and librarians and also clerks and bookkeepers of schools, 
school superintendents — six yearly hours; assistant school superin- 
tendents (ladies' school superintendents not in boarding schools) — 
18 yearly hours; instructors and ladies' school superintendents of 
boarding schools — 24 yearly hours. 

7. An additional remuneration of labor in preparation of labora- 
tory work shall be made to the extent of 20 per cent, of a yearly hour; 
remuneration of labor in correcting written tests shall be made to 
the extent of 10 per cent, of a yearly hour; modern and ancient lan- 
guages — 10 per cent.; Russian language and mathematics — 15 per cent. 

8. All living quarters, occupied by virtue of service, shall be paid 
for by the occupants, the amounts being fixed by respective depart- 
ments of the Soviets of Workmen's, Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. 

9. The duties of a clerk and bookkeeper at non-boarding schools 
shall be executed by one person. 

Note. — Two positions fused into one shall be allowed to be 
filled by one person only by special permission from a Depart- 
ment of Public Education attached to the local Soviets of Work- 
men's, Soldiers' and Peasants' Deputies. 

10. The technical personnel shall be remunerated in accordance 
with a decree of the Soviet of People's Commissaires. 

11. The following rule applies to teachers serving above the 
fixed term: every five years a raise of 600 rubles a year shall be paid 
to teachers having not less than six yearly hours in all schools, this 
raise being paid not longer than for four consecutive periods. 

12. New standards of payments shall be in force beginning 
March 1, 1918, two categories being adopted for this purpose. 

13. To the first category belong: 

(a) all secondary schools, and 

(b) all higher grammar, technical, trades, agricultural schools, 
teachers' seminaries, normal schools and instructors of school and 
school-administration work. 

14. To the second category belong: lower grammar, trades, lower 
agricultural schools and instructors for kindergarten training. 

Note to Articles 13 and 14. 

The difference between the aforesaid remuneration scale and that 
of the actually received salary shall be paid to persons of the teachers' 
personnel, described in Articles 13 and 14, beginning March 1, and the 
rest, beginning June 1. 

Note 2 to Articles 13 and 14. 

Persons leaving service before publication of said decree shall 
forfeit their pension rights. 

15. Monthly salaries to persons of the first category shall range 

21 



from 600 to 400 rubles at Petrograd and Moscow, and for the second 
category — from 500 to 300. 

16. Present remunerations likewise apply to private schools 
having the same governmental rights. 

Chairman of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, 
V. Ulianov (Lenin). 

Chief Clerk, V. Bonch-Bruevich. 

Secretary of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, 
N. Gorbunov. 

As an example, one of many, to show the operation of the 
Soviet principle in the educational matters of portions of the 
country, the following document (Document No. 5) will illus- 
trate the methods of the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet of 
Workers' Deputies. 

DOCUMENT No. 5 

Regulation of the Presidium of the Moscow Soviet of 
Workmen's Deputies, Dated May 15th, 1918 

Concerning organization of a Section of People's Education. 

Supplementing the regulation of the Presidium of the M. S. W. D. 
of May 11th, the following rulings have been adopted: 

1. The Section of People's Education of the Moscow Soviet of 
Workmen's Deputies is an organ unifying and directing the activities 
of all cultural-educational and artistic-educational institutions, except- 
ing those which have a State-wide importance. 

Therefore the jurisdiction of the Section extends not merely over 
institutions directly subsidized by the Soviet, but also over those be- 
longing to private individuals and bodies. 

2. The Section is headed by a collegium appointed by the Mos- 
cow S. W. D., with a membership of 5 persons and 2 candidates. 

3. The Section is divided into 3 sub-sections: (a) school, (b) 
artistic-educational, and (c) educational institutions. 

In turn the sub-sections have the following sub-divisions: (a) 
school section — pre-school, elementary school; secondary and higher 
vocational education; courses for adults and youths; sanitary science 
schools, and auxiliary institutions (museums, objects for school 
accommodations, moving pictures and courses for instructors, etc.) ; 
artistic-educational — theatre, music and plastic arts; (b) educational 
sub-section — libraries, clubs and people's houses. 

The above mentioned list of sub-sections, sections and sub-divi- 
sions is not necessarily an exhaustive one: new sub-divisions and 

22 



sections may be formed to meet a new demand, depending upon the 
specialization and development of the undertaking. 

4. An advisory board, which includes representatives from all 
sub-sections and divisions, is established at the Collegium, and all 
questions involving the jurisdiction of two or more sub-sections or 
divisions, as well as questions the Collegium may deem it necessary 
to discuss, are submitted to the board for approval. 

5. There is also established at the Collegium an advisory organ 
— a Soviet of collegiates' representatives in charge of people's educa- 
tion from regional Soviets of Workmen's Deputies; representatives 
of the Soviet, sub-sections and divisions, and in case of absence of 
such — representatives of workers from a given branch of activity, 
directors of sections, representatives of workmen's organizations — 
Central Labor Co-operative and Central Bureau of trade unions. 

6. An advisory organ is established at each sub-section — a Soviet 
which includes representatives from regional sections (one from 
each), directors of divisions comprising the sub-section and those 
selected from the reserve. 

'/. Similar Soviets are established at various sections compris- 
ing representatives from regional Soviets of Workmen's Deputies, 
representatives of workers from various branches of activities, 
directors of divisions _and sub-divisions and those selected by prefer- 
ence from the reserve; for sections insufficiently developed, in place of 
Soviets, it is permissible to establish committees elected by the Soviet 
of the sub-section. 

8. All these Soviets work regularly, meeting on appointed dates. 
Besides, twice or thrice a year a general meeting of all Soviets, sec- 
tions, sub-sections and branches, is called for discuss : on of questions 
of principle relating to organization of educational work among the 
people in the cities. 

9. Direct supervision of current work of sub-divisions and divi- 
sions is divided between the members of Collegiums and officials 
especially invited by the Collegium. 

10. Detailed definition of the jurisdiction of each sub-section and 
sections is determined by rules of institutions, drawn up by the Col- 
legium. 

11. Similar branches of people's education are organized in dif- 
ferent localities, with corresponding sub-sections and divisions, in 
accordance with an instruction drawn up by the section in charge 
of people's education. 

12. Direct supervision of cultural-educational institutions is 
divided between the capitals and the provinces to correspond with 
the regional or municipal importance of an institution. 

13. Further changes in the present organization, as for instance: 
establishment of new sub-sections and divisions, or changing the 
jurisdiction of those already existing, can be introduced only .after 

23 



they have been approved by the presidium of the Moscow Soviet of 
Workmen's Deputies. 

The following list of names of the comrades comprising the 
section of people's education has been approved by the presidium: 

1. M. N. Pokrovsky 

2. A. J. Piskunov 

3. S. J. Mitzkovitch 

4. V. P. Obuch 

5. V. M. Fritche 

Candidates : 

1. P. M. Lebedev-Kepzhentzev 

2. Kazarov. 

Presidium of the Moscow Soviet of Workers' Deputies. 
* * * 

Documents No. 6 and 7 show that the efforts of the Soviet 
Government to train the population are by no means limited 
to the children of the country, but extend to able-bodied 
workers, men and women, as well. 

DOCUMENT No. 6 

An Appeal by the Section of Independent Proletarian 

Cultural-Educational Organizations in the Commissariat 

of People's Education 

Comrades : — 

A section of independent cultural-educational proletarian 
organizations ("Proletcult") has been established, attached 
to the Commissariat of People's Education. 

The object of this Section is the creation of a mighty All- 
Russian organization which would unite, support and direct 
the cultural-educational beginnings of all labor organizations. 

Amidst the hard trials and desperate struggles of the past 
year, the Russian worker has manifested a mighty desire for 
knowledge and creativeness. 

The workmen-peasants' government feels it to be its 
bounden duty to respond to this desire. 

To help the worker in his endeavor to free himself from 

24 



the humiliating shackles of ignorance and darkness; to sur- 
round with care and comfort his few leisure hours and to 
bring light and clearness to his understanding of Socialism — 
this is the immediate problem facing the Section. To clear 
the road towards culture for the worker and help him to be- 
come a master in the field in which he heretofore has been 
only a casual visitor — this is the ultimate goal. 

Our Section begins its activity under most trying circum- 
stances. 

Universal illiteracy, unemployment and hunger reign 
throughout the whole country. 

We begin the task with small means at our disposal, with 
lack of workers qualified for such an undertaking. 

The problems that are facing us are great, responsible and 
pressing. 

But we believe that the forces which will come to our 
assistance are also great. 

For the purpose of ascertaining the progress of cultural- 
educational activity of all labor organizations of Russia we 
are sending out a questionnaire. It will help us to regulate 
expediently our material means and discover the n'eeds, re- 
quirements and immediate problems of labor organizations. 
In the near future we shall hold at Moscow a Pan-Russian 
cultural-educational conference, and we are about to start 
publishing a magazine devoted especially to questions of pro- 
letarian culture. We ask the comrades to send us articles, 
stories, verses and every sort of literary material for this 
magazine, as well as for an Almanach which we shall also 
publish. We are producing a standard catalogue for work- 
men's libraries, and we will exert all our efforts in order that 
the bookstore (soon to be opened at the Commissariat of 
People's Education) should have a sufficient number of re- 
quired books. Upon first request we shall send these books 
to labor organizations. Courses on workmen's control and 
trade-union movement have just been opened in Moscow. 

We intend to elaborate and publish all lectures to be held 
there and circulate them through far-distant provincial towns 
and cities where the organization of such courses is attended 
with many difficulties. Trained specialist-workers are needed 

25 



for a wide and serious organization of the cultural-educa- 
tional undertakings. Undoubtedly there are in the provinces 
comrades who, with love and interest, will set themselves to 
this task, after having been trained in this direction. 

Therefore we are anxious now to open in Moscow courses 
for instructors. 

This is the programme of our immediate activities. With 
the greatest attention and gratitude we will listen to all sug- 
gestions from comrades. Only through the latter's responsive 
attitude and active support can we hope to grapple with the 
tremendous problems facing us. 

Section of "Proletcult." 



DOCUMENT No. 7 
Schools for Workmen 

(A News Item, from a Russian newspaper) 

The cultural-educational section of the Soviet of Railroad 
Workers' Deputies sent out a statement to railroad organiza- 
tions regarding the opening of a school of drawing, painting, 
designing, mathematics and modeling, attached to the section 
of graphic arts of the Proletcult, and open with free tuition 
to such as are admitted. Admission to the school is only for 
workers and their children. 



Much has been said boastfully in our country of our great 
system of popular education, and, in spite of the many other 
disadvantages to which our proletarians have been subjected, 
it may be admitted that a certain rudimentary education has 
always been rather well conducted in America. But the gates 
to higher institutions have been closed to all but the wealthy, 
not only by the general conditions of life, which have not 
afforded the leisure for higher study to the great masses of the 
population, but also by high tuition fees, which have made the 
barrier still more insurmountable. How the Russians now 
decide the fee question, even for higher institutions, is the 
subject of Document No. 8. 

26 



DOCUMENT No. 8 

Regulation Concerning Admission to a Higher School 

(University) of the Russian Socialist Federative 

Soviet Republic 

1. Every person, regardless of citizenship and sex, reaching the 
age of 16, can be admitted as a member of the student body to 
any of the higher institutions of learning without submitting a 
diploma or testimonial papers attesting graduation from a secondary 
or other school. 

2. It is forbidden to demand from persons seeking entrance any 
certificates whatsoever, except their identification papers. 

3. All school institutions of the Republic, in conformity with 
the decree on joint instruction, dated May 27, 1918, are thrown open 
to all, regardless of sex. All persons responsible for violating this 
decree shall be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. 

4. Admissions of students (freshmen for the 1918-1919 course) 
already made on the basis of either school certificates or competitive 
examinations, are hereby declared void. New entrance conditions in 
accordance with the requirements of the general provision on the 
higher schools of the Republic, now in course of preparation, shall 
be published not later than September 1, 1918. 

5. Tuition fees in higher educational institutions of the Russian 
Socialist Federative Soviet Republic are henceforth abolished. Tui- 
tion fees already paid for the first half of the academic year 1918-1919 
shall be refunded accordingly. 

Chairman of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, V. Ulianov 

(Lenin) 

Acting People's Commissaire of Education, Pokrovsky, 

Chief Clerk of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, V. Bonch- 

Bruevich, 
Secretary of the Soviet, N. Gorbunov. 

The teaching body in Russia now holds frequent conven- 
tions and congresses, and expresses itself freely on the con- 
duct of the schools, a condition of affairs that will arouse the 
envy of their American colleagues. And their deliberations 
consequently show a depth of appreciation of the problems 
set before them such as is rarely found among American 
teachers. Document No. 9 shows how idealistic and yet how 
profoundly practical are the ambitions of the Russian school 
teachers. This document is in the form of a resolution passed 
at a congress of teachers in Moscow, on June 6, 1918. 

27 



DOCUMENT No. 9 

Declaration of Principles of a Socialist School 

At the All-Russian Congress of Teachers-Internationalists, 
held m Moscow on June 6, 1918, there was discussed and 
adopted a declaration of principles of a Socialist school, which 
runs as follows : 

1. Socialism— is a maximum imaginable realization for 
our epoch in the collective life of humanity, of an intelligently 
directed coordination of labor — mental, physical, organizing 
and executive. 

2. Within this organization of labor, the best possible 
system of organization of knowledge, as the best means of 
cultural development, is a uniform secular school, with free 
tuition, and compulsory for all children and youths, a working 
school based on the principle of self-reliance and self-activity. 

3. The object of such a school is to pass each individual, 
regardless of his natural endowments, through a complete 
cycle of knowledge — beginning with general educational work 
in the primary stages of the school and progressively advanc- 
ing towards specialization in the higher and final stages. 

4. In a society of toilers the task of caring for children, is 
the duty of its members from the moment determined by 
science. Therefore, the infants are taken in charge of com- 
munal nurseries; young children — by the so-called "kinder- 
gartens"; children of primary school age — by the school- 
communes; and youths — by a free university. 

5. A school-commune — where instructions are of a 
greater duration as compared with other schools, aspiring to 
realize the ideal of synthetic knowledge and harmonious so- 
cial intercourse within its inner organization — must serve as a 
laboratory for the preparation of those social forms which are 

*most appropriate for the contemporary cultural epoch. 

6. The function of the State — which in the past was 
omnipotent and pursued the policy of subjugation of society 
and domination over it through school institutions — now be- 
comes simpler and more dignified : from a despot over science 
the State becomes its protector, desirable — during the first 

28 



period of child-caring — and necessary, for the higher stages 
of the educational system. 

7. The struggle for existence in primitive days — trans- 
formed in our epoch to a struggle of classes, and within some 
classes to a struggle of individuals, demanding subjugation of 
one person by another — must be changed into an organized 
cooperation for making nature follow the commands of man, 
and for the attainment of new truths. Acquaintance with the 
most essential of sciences, complete familiarization with the tech- 
nique of one or several of the sciences contributing towards 
making a human being most adapted for directing functions — 
within the sphere of its special endeavors and executive in all 
the rest. 

8. The circumstances attending the modern transition 
period, financial and organizing difficulties, limit, to a certain 
extent, the practical application of the principle of equality of 
education. Hence, a selection is necessary. 

9. Whereas the old pseudo-individualistic school of the 
nobility and bourgeoisie had applied in its systems of educa- 
tion the principle of selection in accordance with economic 
qualifications, namely, purchasing a maximum of knowledge, 
only partially elaborating the latter for its class aims, by a 
selection of the most capable individuals — the new socialistic 
school unequivocally denies such qualifications. 

10. On the contrary, with inflexible consistency, includ- 
ing that of denying to the rich, but incapable individuals 
accessibility to higher education — the new school applies 
selection on the principle of intellectual ability. 

11. With the object of a rational utilization of special 
abilities, having constantly in view the most intensive devel- 
opment of the productive forves of the socialist fatherland, the 
school — uniform in its primary stages — becomes more com- 
plex in its structure as it advances and is finally crowned by 
a number of special faculties. 

12. Likewise, the essential principle of the socialistic 
school — the principle of productive endeavors, which destroys 
the bourgeois conception of the two would-be contradictory 
forms of labor — mental and manual, high and contemptible — 
assumes in the first stages a polytechnic character and grad- 

29 



ually changes it to a special scientific instruction, in the higher 
stages. 

13. Whereas the old school was ever national and 
chauvinistic in character, the new school must be, in form 
and substance, a true national school — instructions conducted 
in the mother tongue, a thorough knowledge of the home 
country's physical and social conditions — but it must also be an 
international school as regards principles and methods. 

14. Striving towards a harmonious synthesis of a broad 
educational culture with a thoroughgoing vocational training, 
educating the students in the spirit of the international 
solidarity of labor, only the socialist school has the right to say 
that it does not turn a human being out a skilled laborer but 
creates a man. 

H 5 ^F >K 

Document No. 9 shows how the teacher has been stimu- 
lated to take a real interest in the school work, in its curricu- 
lum, and in the ultimate welfare of the children, a thing which, 
under capitalist society, it may be frankly said he never does. 
But not only is the teacher made into a real teacher by the 
Soviet methods, but janitors, firemen, and other school em- 
ployees are to have their tasks dignified and rendered less 
sordid by actual pleasant and official contact with the student 
body. The article by A. Okunkoff, which is printed as Docu- 
ment No. 10, is from the pen of a specialist in education, and 
deals specifically with the question : ''How shall the janitor 
be made a human being, instead of a tyrant over teachers and 
pupils, as in America?" 

From "Narodnoye Prosvieschenye" (People's Education) Issue 

No. 10. 

DOCUMENT No. 10 

The Workers' School and the School Servants 

By A. Okunkoff 

The old school system, which is now departing into the sphere 
of oblivion, was a reflex of the dominant class relations and, 
therefore, the economic system of the school and, in particular, 
of the town school, even in its details, moved largely along the 

30 



lines of the economic system of the present-day family institu- 
tion. The contemporary middle bourgeois family of a city 
teaches a child, even from earliest infancy, to use paid services, 
the services of the domestic servants, the number of whom 
depends on the wealth of the parents. Nurses, maid servants, 
dishwashers, porters, and all other kinds of domestic servants 
train the mind of the children, from the very cradle, to the 
stability and the righteousness of an order of life in which the 
exploitation of other people's work is considered the necessary 
and natural addition to the comforts of existence. The children, 
after leaving such a home environment for the school, find here 
the same ranks of servants performing almost the same duties 
as in the family circle. The porters undressing the children 
and keeping their coats and dresses, men servants and nurses 
cleaning the rooms, scrubbers looking after the cleanliness of 
the floors, couriers running on errands, janitors and stokers — all 
these people, who are working in the school, appear to the chil- 
dren to be the same necessary addition to the comforts of school 
life as the corresponding persons outside of the school. Hence, 
the children very naturally acquire the idea of the "common," 
"base" labor which is the lot of the "lower" classes of humanity, 
doomed by forces unknown to the child to be the natural and 
eternal slaves of his will and that of other privileged people. In 
this manner the school system has nursed in its pupils a contempt 
for physical work and a scornful relation towards the mass of 
working people, on whom the bourgeois order has imposed all 
the hardship of this work. The bourgeois school makes of its 
pupils privileged idlers, people unable, to work, and, very often, 
even exploiters. Heroic spiritual efforts were necessary later, a 
gigantic internal struggle/ and a sharp revolution of viewpoints 
and habits of mind, in order to rid oneself from this poisonous 
inoculation of the school and to overcome the immunity result- 
ing from it. And in fact, only after a kind of psychical "illness," 
could a man brought up in the school of the past absolve him- 
self from inherited ideas and attain a healthy balance and a 
healthy, sound view of the life surrounding him. 

On the other hand, the school servants themselves, put in 
such a situation, developed and strengthened in themselves a feel- 
ing of injury and bitterness because of their fate and, as a natural 
consequence thereof, an unfriendly feeling towards the pupils of 
the school, to these "gentlefolk's children" and favorites of 

31 



destiny. It is hardly worth mentioning besides, that, alongside 
of all this, there was some evidence of demoralization also. 

The new Labor school, which the Soviet power is trying to 
create, must not, of course, permit such education. Its tasks are 
diametrically opposed to the tasks of a bourgeois school. In 
respect to physical work the new school sets as its aim the cultiva- 
tion of a high regard for all lines of productive work, and of a 
profound esteem for the millions of the working masses. The 
productive work of men, creating new cultural values and free- 
ing humanity from the former fetters, irrespective of the category 
of work-^-this is the fundamental idea which should be laid as a 
cornerstone for the education of the new labor school. The 
conclusion, then, follows of itself, that in the labor school-com- 
mune the teachers and the pupils should take upon themselves 
all those labors which the old school imposed upon the shoulders 
of others and that, out of an ideal inspiration, the physical work 
necessary for the school life should be equally divided among 
the participants of the school in accordance with the physical 
strength of the respective age groups. 

Here we approach the question whether there exists a neces- 
sity for school servants altogether and, if such a necessity exists, 
what place in the school system should be set aside for the school 
servants. The answer to this question is offered by the fundamen- 
tal principle of the school system: the education of children in 
school must be in charge of no one else but those who are to 
be considered as instructors and, therefore, the instruction in 
the physical work necessary for the economic welfare of the 
school life must be put in charge of persons who may be called 
pedagogues. Concrete instances will illustrate better the sub- 
stance of this thesis. Let us assume that in the youngest group 
of children who have not yet the adequate habits of physical 
strength to be entrusted with performing any physical work, for 
instance making the fires, or preparing meals, we should have 
to resort to the use of other people's work, let us even say, the 
work of school pupils of an older age group. In such case there 
would be still necessary in the school an instructor-stoker or an 
instructor-cook, who should be fully conscious of his educational 
duties and who, consequently, would have to attain a certain 
level of pedagogical development. The heating of furnaces and 
the preparation of food may then, under his leadership, change 
not only into a very important, though purely mechanical work, 

32 



into a mechanical productive work having a very great educa- 
tional value, too, but it may become a source for the education 
and mental development of the children. Yet the leader-peda- 
gogue will necessarily be compelled to have by his side a helper 
not from the ranks of the pupils. The moral and mental develop- 
ment of this helper must correspond to the indicated tasks of 
work in school. Another instance. If a nurse is necessary for 
the care of the children in the younger age group, the role of 
such_ nurse should be at the same time an educational one, and 
such nurse should be fully aware of her responsibility before 
society and should clearly understand the importance of her 
duties. The work of a nurse, a floor-scrubber, a stoker, etc., if 
it should prove impossible to do without their help, should be 
to some extent an expert work, a work which has a pedagogical 
foundation. Under such circumstances the word "servants" will 
assume in the school an entirely different meaning: the school 
servants will become, in fact, the lower pedagogical personnel 
corresponding, as regards its value in school, to the value ot a 
surgeon's assistants and nurses at the time of operations. 

If we should turn to the present realities of life, we would, 
indeed, find such conditions nowhere in school. The moral and 
intellectual level of the school servants very often does not cor- 
respond to their task and is, one may state it, directly inverse to 
the level of the luxuriousness of the school environment. This 
is not the fault, of course, of the staff of the lower servants. 
For obvious reasons, the responsibility for this is also in this 
case directly inverse to the educational level of the school direc- 
tors and is the result of the former economic order of life. 

To what extent the leading circles ignored up to the time of 
the November revolution, the problem of the school servants, is 
manifest if only from the circumstance that the school registers 
did not even take cognizance of the numerical force of the lower 
servants. 

Even if we omit the question of guilt, the problem still 
remains and it is left to the Soviet school policy to perform 
this task. And when, with this policy in view, one reviews the 
ranks of the former school personnel, one can hardly find any 
personal points of support for a further movement. For that 
matter, however, a straight and honorable road is clearly indicated, 
along which not only will the movement not meet any obstacles, 

33 



any differences, but not even a single contradiction. This road 
is the abolishment of the old and the preparation of a new work- 
ing school army, with the improvement of its working conditions. 

And indeed, if we examine into the school methods of hygiene 
and if we carry into execution the measures recommended by 
science, we cannot imagine that the work will be successful, 
if the executors of the first customary rules of health preserva- 
tion will demonstrate a skeptical indifference toward them and 
if their existence will be surrounded by anti-hygienic conditions. 
When a helper, while opening ventilation or removing dust, or 
a nurse, while attending the children, will only care to execute 
these operations as an order, as a hard duty, and, while removing 
the dust, or touching the child will carry from the dark, damp, 
basement, which so often is used in schools for housing and 
crowding servant people in them, his or somebody else's germs 
and his anti-hygienic habits — then such help is directly dangerous 
for the school. The helper-servant must, to some little extent at 
least, be acquainted in a general way with the elementary rules 
of school hygiene. The same may be said of the helpers in any 
other household line. Thus the school is in need of qualified 
workers, instructors in school economy. The creation of an army 
of such instructors is rendered possible all the more, since the 
remuneration for school work is at present sufficiently high. 

How, then, to create such an army? Up to the present time 
there were conducted everywhere pedagogical and general educa- 
tional courses for instructors of all school grades. Corresponding 
courses of school economy must be quickly organized in various 
localities for the school servants and for the instructors, and 
these courses must not be of a narrow technical scope but with 
a number of subjects of a general educational character. We 
may rest assured that the lower servants themselves, who 
undoubtedly aspire to education, will heartily respond to the idea 
of the courses and will lend their support to these tasks. Then 
we could cherish a hope for the creation of a new school army, 
where from young to old every one would be imbued with the 
common idea and where the difference between the old and young, 
between the "gentle" and the "common" work, would disappear. 
The union of the teachers-internationalists and its branches must 
pay special attention to this question and to advancing the prob- 
lem, in co-operation with the labor union of the servants (along 
the lines of specialization), most decidedly and quickly. The 

34 



working out of the program and the introduction of the courses 
on school economy — this is the immediate task of groups of 
idealists who are interested in the problem of education. 

* * * 

Document No. 11 is an interesting, though rather brief, out- 
line of an experiment with a model school of vocational training 
for children. 

DOCUMENT No. 11 

Experimental Vocational School 

The first experimental vocational school of the department 
of school reforms, attached to the People's Commissariat of 
Education, began to function June 19, 1918. Great difficulties 
connected with food problems have made it impossible thus far 
to admit to the school its prescribed full quota of pupils. The 
school has the character of an experimental institution, estab- 
lished for the purpose of a scientific and practical solution of 
questions connected with the new pedagogy and, particularly, 
those regarding the school-workshop. Its activity has been con- 
ducted along scientifically experimental lines and for the compara- 
tively short period of the school's existence many valuable results 
for the realization of school reforms have already been achieved. 

The activity of the school has manifested itself within the 
following spheres : 1) Biological and sociological study of children 
of school age; 2) Physical instruction and education; 3) Experi- 
ments along the line of an extensive organization of a vocational 
school ; 4) Experimental investigation of various methods of 
educational work; 5) Social education; 6) Esthetic education. 

To accomplish the aims stated above the school has been 
organized as a vocational school-commune, having at its disposal 
a number of scientific and auxiliary institutions : shops, scientific 
cabinets, laboratories, and cabinets for medical, anthropological 
and psychological investigations. 

The school has been completely furnished with the necessary 
economic and school inventories; it has several shops for car- 
pentry, book-bindery and classes in draftsmanship. In addition 
to this, the children receive instruction in embroidering, modeling 

35 



and weaving. A biological cabinet has been purchased and a 
juvenile and teachers' library has been established. Instructions 
are also given in national history, mathematics in connection 
with national history and elements of the Russian language. 



A more important experiment still than that described in 
Document 11, is that shown in Document 12, which is an account 
of the aims of the new Institute for Child Study. 



DOCUMENT No. 12 

The Institute for Child Study 

Beginning September 1, 1918, 3-semester courses have been 
announced at the Institute for Child Study on preliminary educa- 
tion which have for their object the training of instructors for 
pre-scholastic education. Parallel to these courses there have also 
been functioning 3 months' courses for training instructors of 
Kindergarten, children-homes, playgrounds and children settle- 
ments. 

The Institute itself — an institution for the first time function- 
ing in Russia, has been established owing to the necessity of a 
thorough-going study of all questions connected with pre-scholas- 
tic bringing up and of creating a staff of trained instructors for 
the solution of urgent problems of today regarding state, social, 
universal and free education for children of pre-scholastic age. 
With these objects in view, as well as for purposes of wide 
propaganda of ideas of pre-scholastic education and creation of 
affiliated branches in provinces, the Institute has been divided into 
the following departments: 1) science, 2) instruction, 3) in- 
formation, 4) publications. 

To the Department of Science have been attached the follow- 
ing auxiliary institutions : 1 ) medical and psychological labora- 
tory, 2) experimental infant home, 3) experimental Kinder- 
garten. Scientific investigations are recorded in a special maga- 
zine on pre-scholastic education, published at the Institute. 

The Department of Instruction includes: 1) 3-semesters' 
and 3 months' courses for training instructors and directors of 
children's institutions of pre-scholastic age, 2) a training school 

36 



for directresses of children's homes, 3) experimental Kinder- 
garten, and 4) experimental children's homes. 

The Information Department has a museum and a library on 
all questions of pedagogy, and a lecture bureau. 

The Publishing Department publishes a special magazine, 
publishes and distributes scientific and popular treatises on pre- 
scholastic education, and has its own shop where furniture, toys 
and school appliances are manufactured. 



II. School Sanitation and General Hygiene 

The hygienic interests of the population are treated in Docu- 
ment No. 13, while the application of hygiene to the school is 
taken up in Documents Nos. 14 and 15. 

DOCUMENT No. 13 

Essential Problems Connected with the Organization of 

Medical Aid Throughout the Russian Socialist 

Federal Soviet Republic 

At the present moment, when the People's Commissariat of 
Education is approaching the question of education, and is 
attempting to direct it in a manner necessary for a thorough- 
going development of the individual, a great demand for physi- 
cian-pedagogues is being felt. This question is naturally closely 
interrelated with the organization of medical-sanitary aid in the 
Republic. At the congress of medical-sanitary boards attached 
to the various local Soviets of workmen's deputies, held during 
the summer of 1918, in Moscow, the following resolution was 
adopted : 

"1) The most essential organization task of medical aid in 
localities under the Soviet Government has been the removal of 
old inter-departmental limitations and their unification. 2) 
Therapeutics must be built on a basis of a consistent realization 
of the following principles: a) general accessibility, b) free treat- 
ment. 3) It is necessary to immediately take steps toward rais- 
ing the quality of medical aid (special hours for treatment, 
ambulatories, special dispensaries). 4) Only the Soviet Govern- 
ment, firmly pursuing the policy of abolishing social inequality, 

37 



can build a firm foundation for an organization capable of fight- 
ing successfully social diseases (tuberculosis, venereal diseases, 
child mortality, etc.) as well as anti-sanitary housing conditions. 
5) It is necessary to immediately begin an extensive sanitary- 
educational propaganda among the population (readings, lec- 
tures, exhibitions, etc.). 6) Forms of the population's participation 
in medical and sanitary activities, and forms of its self-activity 
must be radically changed : a most extensive participation in those 
activities by organized labor and poor peasants is required." 

For this purpose a People's Commissariat to safeguard health 
has been established. Around this Commissariat are grouped 
various medical and sanitary branches at the present time func- 
tioning in different localities. The central Commissariat has 
been in charge of the whole medical business and issues direc- 
tions to local Commissariats of kindred nature. 

A physician, engaged in school work, must raise the whole 
spirit of the school, which is a laboratory for the forging of 
the man of the future. The proletariat has lit the torch of edu- 
cation and has for its object — the utilization of all the progressive 
methods of Western pedagogy, school sanitation and general 
science subjects. 

After the November Revolution a school-sanitary Soviet was 
established at the People's Commissariat of Education, its object 
being the protection of the children's health, as an essential pre- 
requisite for a high standard of health for the population in 
general. 

DOCUMENT No. 14 
School Sanitation Board 

At the Congress of medical-sanitation held at Moscow, June 
19, 1918, there was read and discussed at great length the report 
from the school-sanitation board attached to the Commissariat 
of Public Instruction. The Section is entrusted with safeguard- 
ing the children's health and the application of preventive meas- 
ures in schools against tuberculosis and neurological diseases. 

Hitherto in Russia little time was devoted to physical educa- 
tion of children and their hygienic conditions. At the present 
time the School Sanitation Board does the work of spreading 
physical education among children and of removal of conditions 

38 



detrimental to students' health. To accomplish this the Board 
has established an Institute of Physical Education in Russia, 
experimental institutions (settlements, schools of forestry, 
school-sanatoriums, ambulatories, etc.) and has been aiding labor 
organizations interested in the establishment of such institutions. 

The following resolution of the School Sanitary Board was 
adopted : 

1. The object of school sanitation within the boundaries of the 
Russian Soviet Republic is the safeguarding of the health of children 
of all ages, physical as well as mental, and a proper organization of 
physical education. 

2. For the realization of this problem a central school-sanitation 
Soviet is established at the Commissariat of Public Instruction, rep- 
resentatives of proletarian organizations and large masses of the 
population participating in the work. 

3. Likewise, similar school-sanitation Soviets are established in 
localities regulating and directing the local school-sanitation activity. 

4. The directing organs in the matters of school sanitation are 
medical boards, elected by medical sanitary organizations such as the 
Soviet of Medical Boards or the Commissariat of Health and medical 
sanitary sections attached to the local Soviets of Workmen's 
Deputies and approved by the Commissariat of Public Instruction. All 
these organizations are working in close contact with the Central 
Commissariat of Health as well as with the Commissariat of Public 
Instruction and sections attached thereto. 

5. A school physician is a permanent and competent member of 
the pedagogic Soviet and is actively engaged in school work. He is 
elected by the school-sanitary sub-section of the medical sanitary 
board and is approved by the Department of Public Instruction 
attached to the Soviet. 

6. To safeguard the health of children and to render direct men- 
tal, moral and physical aid to children of imperfect health the school- 
sanitary sections (medical boards) establish special institutions: 
sanatoriums, schools of forestry for physically weak and sick children, 
auxiliary schools for underdeveloped children, auxiliary dispensaries, 
sanatoriums and agricultural settlements for exceptional forms of 
mental and physical deformity. School ambulatories are established 
for study, medical treatment and assigning children to proper institu- 
tions. 

DOCUMENT No. 15 

A Provision 

adopted at the joint session of the United School and School-Sanitary 
Board, July 10th, 1918. 

The science of hygiene must permeate our school instruction and 

39 



bringing-up of children, beginning with the first hours of their school 
attendance. Instruction in hygiene received in primary schools is 
completed in the higher grades through a course of lectures delivered 
by the school physician. Hygiene, as a bio-social science, should be 
taught in the last year of secondary schooling. Here hygiene should 
be superseded by instructions in the physiology and anatomy of man. 

Hygiene should be taught by a physician. 

Commissary of School-Sanitary Department. 



III. Art Education 

In each of the capitals there is an Art Collegium to look after 
the art interests of the population. Document No. 16 gives the 
names of the members of the Moscow Art Collegium, also the 
various functions of that body, which show that the Soviets are 
much concerned with the teaching of art and the preservation of 
art objects. Documents Nos. 17 and 18, in accordance with the 
Strindbergian doctrine that "there is so much that only needs to 
be destroyed," deals with two necessary abolitions of former 
institutions, before their functions could be handed over to the 
representatives of the proletariat. 

DOCUMENT No. 16 
The Art Collegium 

The Art Collegium of the city of Moscow has the following 
membership list of painters, sculptors and architects : Koncha- 
lovsky, Konenkov, Mashkov, Tatlin, Ivanov, Morgunov, Mrs. 
Tolstoi, Udaltzeva, Schusev, Noakovsky, Theltovsky, Vesnin 
and the Commissary of Art — Malinovsky.* 

All of them had joined the Collegium's body as representatives 
of the unions and organizations to which they belong. 

The Collegium's objects are: 

1. Organization of State art education: 

(a) establishment of art studios meeting the requirements of 
the new Russia; 

(b) propaganda of art among large democratic masses. 



* (Translator's note — The names given above are those of distin- 
guished artists and persons who have been interested in artistic pro- 
motions, irrespective of political affiliations. So far as is known, 
Malinovsky is the only one who is a member of the Bolshevik party.) 

40 



2. Effect contact with world's artistic centres. 

3. Promotion of growth of art: 

(a) by organizing State competitive examinations; 

(b) organization of trade unions' mutual aid societies, etc.; 

(c) organization of decorative artists' committees and scenic art 
workers. 

4. Organizing the preservation of arts of the past and present 
and protection of the future. 

DOCUMENT No. 17 

A Decree 

The Academy of Art, as a State Institution, is hereby declared 
dissolved. The Higher Art School is thus dissociated from the 
Academy of Art, with all corresponding credits and capital, and 
reorganized into an independent art school. 

The Museum of the Academy of Art is placed in the hands of 
the Commissariat of Education. 

All moneys and the entire property of the Academy of Art are 
declared the property of the Soviet Republic, to be used as a fund 
designed to meet special needs of art culture. 

Chairman of Soviet of People's Commissaries, 

V. Ulianov (Lenin). 

People's Commissaires: 

A. Lunacharsky, Stalin and G. Chicherin. 

Chief Clerk of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, 

V. Bonch-Bruevitch. 

Secretary of the Soviet, 

N. P. Gorbunov. 

DOCUMENT No. 18 
Decree Concerning the Moscow Art Society 

The Soviet of People's Commissaires decrees: 

1. Owing to the fact that the school of painting, sculpture and 
architecture under patronage of the Moscow Art Society has been 
placed within the jurisdiction of the Commissariat of People's Com- 
missaires — the functioning of the Moscow Art Society is forthwith 
discontinued. 

2. All the moneys, movable and real-estate properties of the 
Society are declared national property and entrusted to the Commis- 
sariat of People's Education, and to be used to meet the needs of the 
school of painting, sculpture and architecture, as well as for the 
organization and support of the task of art education in the Rus- 
sian Soviet Republic. 

41 



Chairman of the S. P. C, V. Ulianov (Lenin). 
People's Commissaire of Education, Lunacharsky. 
Charge d'affaires of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, 

Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich. 
Sec'y of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, N. Gorbunov. 

Moscow, Kreml, July 12th, 1918. 

We come now to one of the features of Soviet domination 
that distinguish it from any other government that has ever been 
established. For the first time in history a whole people is to 
have the opportunity, not only to see works of art, to appreciate 
them and study them, but creatively to produce art of a type 
consonant with their system of civilization. The efforts of the 
Soviet Government to stimulate the proletariat, now that it is 
dominant, to take advantage of its opportunities for culture, are 
nowhere more clearly stated than in Documents Nos. 19 and 20. 
which are concerned with the art education of the people. 

DOCUMENT No. 19 

The Main Problems of the Art Sections of the Soviets of- 

Workmen's Deputies 

Each Soviet of workmen's deputies has a special section of 
people's education and to the latter is usually attached an art 
sub-section. What are, then, the fundamental problems of these 
art sections and sub-sections? 

Four main problems can be distinguished upon examination. 

J. Keats, the English poet, said that "A thing of beauty is 
a joy forever." It would have been better had it been possible 
for him to say, "a thing of beauty is a joy to everybody." The 
immediate duty of the art sections attached to the Soviets of 
workmen's deputies it to turn beauty and art into a "universal 
joy" — a joy to the whole city's population. The first problem is 
the "socialization of art" and there are two ways by which this 
aim can be accomplished best and most easily. The first step 
required is external beautification of cities (chiefly large cities, 
of course) : turn them not merely into city-village, city-park, city- 
garden but also into a city-museum, a museum of magnificient 
buildings, beautiful monuments, in fine, make them externally 
resemble that picturesque London of the future described by 
William Morris in his Utopian "News from Nowhere." Some- 

42 



thing has already been done in that direction: it will suffice to 
mention here the erection of fifty monuments in Moscow in 
honor of leaders and heroes of the world revolution; erection in 
the Mars Field of a memorial monument to the victims of the 
revolution ; decision of the Penza Soviet to erect a monument to 
Marx, etc. The other way is, through the socialization of art, 
turn it into a joy for all — holding of solemn and sumptuous 
national revolutionary and socialist holidays, similar to those 
which were so frequently and gorgeously celebrated during the 
days of the Great French Revolution, when famous artists such 
as David, and many prominent composers had charge of these 
festivals and beautified them with their compositions. At these 
revolutionary and socialist feasts, art — music, songs, decoration — 
ought to play an important role, and the ceremonial pageant, 
already beautiful in itself, ought from time to time, at big squares 
and especially in summer time beyond the confines of the city, 
to rise to a real festival of art. 

The second problem to be solved by the art sections or sub- 
sections attached to the Soviets of workmen's deputies, will con- 
sist not only in evoking in the large masses of the city popula- 
tions an interest in all things artistic, not only the "democratiza- 
tion" of art, but also in laying a foundation and building up a 
genuine, democratic, proletarian, socialistic art. The best means 
for the solution of this second problem is, first, staging of such 
plays as represent bourgeois society in a negative-satirical vein — 
society's manners, its heroes, favorites and idols, or such as 
describe in tragic tone the struggle of the working class against 
its oppressors, the struggle of the proletariat for its emancipa- 
tion, and, finally, the birth of a new socialist culture and morality. 
The accomplishment of this aim — planting the seeds for a prole- 
tarian socialist art — can be also considerably aided through the 
organization, at People's Houses and workmen's clubs, and, on 
some solemn occasions, at theatres, of specially arranged literary- 
musical evenings devoted, from beginning to end, from the intro- 
ductory word to the concert part (recitation, singing and music), 
to emphasizing the subject of the particular evening, for an 
example, the Idea of the Revolution, Significance of May 1st, or 
Proletarian Poetry, etc. 

It is necessary not only to socialize and democratize art, but 
it is also a matter of great urgency — and this forms the third 
problem of the art sub-sections attached to the Soviets of work- 

43 



men's deputies — to prepare the large masses of urban population 
for the * comprehension of esthetic values and give them an 
artistic education. It is clear that the following measures should 
be undertaken to accomplish this : Publication of popular pocket 
editions, finely prepared, on the history of Russian and West- 
European art, which would give understanding for, and familiar- 
ize the worker with, the great masters in painting and sculpture ; 
publication at popular prices of reproductions of representative 
specimens of Russian and European art, especially of works deal- 
ing with social themes, the toiling life of peasants and workers 
(Adler, Millet, Manet, Mentzel, Maddox, Brown and the Rus- 
sian Traveling Exhibitors) ; arranging lectures on art which, in 
a popular way, with the aid of movies, will acquaint the toilers 
with the evolution of art styles, the influence of social surround- 
ings on art, technical problems connected with the art of different 
epochs, and finally, the building at the art section of a special art 
library and reading room — these are the chief important means 
for the artistic education of the large masses of the toiling urban 
population. 

And, lastly, the fourth — and perhaps the most essential and 
important problem facing the art sections attached to the Soviets 
of workers' deputies — is making the proletariat and the toiling 
classes capable of not only comprehending and criticising things 
beautiful, whether in the form of stage representations or crea- 
tions of the brush or chisel, but also of themselves creating those 
beautiful things, first, in forms inherited from the past, and then, 
in new forms corresponding to the psychology of these new 
classes. Establishment of schools of drawing, modeling, recita- 
tion and theatrical art, creation of People's Art Academies with 
lecture halls and convenient studios — these are the means that 
could gradually transform the toilers from passive observers and 
critics of beauty into creative artists of beauty, builders of a 
new proletarian-socialist art which — we believe — will surpass 
in its grandeur the art of the past. 

In connection with the above-stated problems of the art 
sections attached to the Soviets, there should naturally spring to 
life a number of . committees entrusted with the task of beauti- 
fication of cities, organizations of national holidays and pageants, 
organization of revolutionary-socialist concerts and perform- 
ances; also committees in charge of publications, lectures, 
libraries, schools — committees composed of representatives from 

44 



Soviets and labor organizations, artists, actors, stage directors 
and finally, specialists on the history of art. 

Such are the manifold and difficult problems of the Soviet 
art sections. Their duty is to make art a "joy for all," not only 
in making the great masses of the urban population interested 
in things artistic, but particularly in strengthening and promoting 
the artistic aspirations of the revolutionary proletariat; giving, 
to the large masses of the urban population, as far as possible, 
a thorough artistic education, and lastly, finishing and crowning 
this work by training the toilers for active artistic creation. To 
prepare the ground for a new art created by a new people — 
such, briefly, is the aim which the art sections, attached to the 
Soviets of workmen deputies, should pursue. 

DOCUMENT No. 20 

Art Educational Section of the Moscow Soviet of Workmen's 

Deputies 

The activity of the Art-Educational Section has been two- 
fold: administrative and art-educational, strictly speaking. 

Owing to the limited number of persons comprising the 
directing body (the delegates' group) much time has been con- 
sumed by administrative work, weighing heavily chiefly upon the 
shoulders of a small number of active members of the delegates' 
group. This work consisted in managing the State Theatres 
and a dramatic school; participating in the management of peo- 
ple's houses and of the theatre of the Soviet of Workers' 
Deputies; artistic supervision of Moscow's theatrical life; 
solving a number of problems connected with requisition and 
housing of premises occupied by theatres and by members of 
the theatrical and musical profession and issuing of permits 
for removal of valuables contained in the safes. 

All this sort of work has consumed much time. The Section 
has had to pass on whether certain theatres were subject to 
requisition, or whether they were to be preserved as of artistic 
value. This required a re-examination of stage productions and 
of the theatrical repertoire. Since several organizations claimed 
those premises the Section had also to acquaint itself with the 
nature of the activities of those organizations in order to preserve 
whatever might, at a given moment, prove to be most valuable 

45 



to organized democracy. Besides, the Section has acted as an 
information bureau to proletarian organizations which have been 
seeking the Section's help in obtaining quarters for their cultural 
needs. 

The Section has had to pass on whether the living quarters 
of various individual actors, artists or musicians were subject 
to requisition or progressive housing; whether permission should 
be granted to certain members of the theatrical and musical pro- 
fession regarding the removal of valuables from the safes, and 
what particular valuables, etc. 

Thousands of persons have come to the Section requesting a 
speedy solution of all these questions. 

Still more complex, and consuming still greater time, has 
been the work connected with the management of the State 
Theatres. It was necessary to carry out, as quickly as possible, 
the reorganization in the . management of the theatres and 
determine the composition of theatrical companies for the next 
season, in order to begin immediate preparations for the next 
season. The representatives of the Sections had to actively 
participate in the meetings of the Soviets of the Main and Little 
theatres and the Dramatic School, meetings of theatre manage- 
ments, committees on reorganizations; conferences of separate 
theatrical troops and groups of theatrical workers ; to participate 
in the investigation of means on hand and to prepare the esti- 
mates for next year. Not a single day passed without such meet- 
ings and it was a rare thing when only one such meeting was 
held instead of two or three. As a result of this activity a 
temporary provision for the managing of the Little Theatre has 
been finally drawn up and. accepted; the composition of the 
theatre agreed upon and organs for its management established. 
The work in connection with the Main Theatre and the Dramatic 
School has been almost completed. The Section's activity in 
organizing the distribution of tickets to the State Theatres 
among labor bodies in order to throw open these theatres to 
large sections of democracy — deserves to be mentioned here. 

The Soviet Theatre has been receiving special attention from 
the Section. When this theatre went over to the Art Union of 
labor organizations, two representatives from the Section joined 
the theatre's management. Such performance as "The Barber 
of Seville" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor" proved to be 
events in the theatrical life of Moscow. 

46 



Two members of the delegates' group have joined the com 1 
mittee in charge of People's Houses and these members have 
been daily engaged in carrying out important and responsible 
work. 

The administrative activity just described has naturally taken 
up the greater part of the time and consequently very little time 
could be spared for the promotion of artistic education among 
the masses. 

The first thing that engaged attention was organization of 
performances in different districts. Prior to the November Revo- 
lution the Section had organized in the districts a few performances 
of the Little and Art theatres. The November Revolution tem- 
porarily frightened away individuals in the theatrical profession 
from the Soviet circles. But they have gradually come back to 
the Soviet. A number of conferences with the Actors' Trade 
Union resulted in an agreement by the terms of which the Moscow 
theatres (Little, Art and its studios, Chamber, Komissarjevski, 
"Bat," etc.) consented to hold performances in the districts. And 
a number of such performances did take place. During the 
summer season the section staged many performances, aided by 
the casts of the-Komissarjavskaya Theatre, House of Free Art, 
the "Bat" and by Voljanin's players. 

Simultaneously the organization of district concerts was in 
progress. The Section organized over 200 such concerts in 
Moscow District and vicinity. A Soviet of Music was organ- 
ized with the object of introducing greater system as well as for 
directing Moscow's musical activity. A few meetings were 
called to which were invited and came all prominent leaders of 
the musical world. As a oonsequence of these sessions a Bureau 
was elected, comprising the most prominent musical names, 
for the purpose of outlining the problems and plan of the Soviet's 
activity. It has been decided to organize a Soviet of 30 persons ; 
15 representatives of the musical world and 15 representatives 
of organized democracy (including 2 representatives of musical 
school students). 

Constant requests from localities as regards the character of 
plays to be staged at People's Houses, what plays are on hand 
and how they could be obtained has brought into existence the 
repertoire committee of the Section. 

The committee has worked out a preliminary list of] plays 

47 



suitable for performing; has read a number of plays and is at 
work preparing of a more detailed list of carefully selected 
plays. The following principles have been accepted by the com- 
mittee as a basis for the repertoire: 1) the list can include only 
plays whose artistic value is beyond reproach; 2) these plays 
by the impression they create on the audience, must be of nature 
coinciding with the spirit of the times, i. e. they must evoke a 
vigorous disposition and intensify the revolutionary fervor of the 
masses. The committee is preparing for publication a book 
which will include, in addition to a list of plays, a brief summary 
of them and stage-director's notes regarding their production. 
This book ought to aid the local players in the selection of plays, as 
well as in improvement of their staging. The committee is also 
preparing for publication a number of new plays, chiefly 
translations, beginning to publish out-of-print plays and preparing 
for publication a collection of articles on history and theory of 
the theatres and also of a number of books bearing on practical 
questions connected with the technique of the theatre. 

Lastly, the Section is issuing its own magazine — The Izvestia 
of the Art-Educational Section. Judging by the demands for 
the magazine from the provinces the need of such a publication is 
very great. 

This is what has been done by the Section : 

Wishing to widen the scope of this activity, raising it to a 
level befitting that of the Workmen's Government, the Section 
has worked out a detailed plan of activity for the next summer 
season, listed a number of individuals who have already, in 
principle, expressed their willingness to participate in the execu- 
tion of the plan ; drawn up an estimate for the meeting of possible 
expenditures needed. The following are the steps under the con- 
sideration of the Section: 

1. Staging of Verhaeren's unique play "Dawn"; 

2. Organization of district performances and employment 
of the Sections own casts for this purpose ; 

3. Organization of symphony (two) orchestras, chamber 
concerts and wind orchestras (eight) at the boulevards; 

4. Organization of juvenile performances for and by the 
children ; 

5. Organization (at six places) of people's holidays and 
pageants, its object being not only to offer to the people sensible, 

48 



artistically conceived recreations, but also to involve the masses 
themselves in a creative artistic activity. 

6. Establishment of courses for instructors with a view of 
educating the future directors of People's Houses ; 

7. Establishment of an information bureau continually in 
touch with the Moscow districts, its suburbs and provinces; the 
bureau will not only inform on the Section's activities but will 
serve also as an advisory board to persons connected with such 
kind of work in localities; 

8. Organization of a technical and art supervision over 
theatrical and musical Moscow enterprises and organization of 
a control of State taxes in theatrical establishments ; 

9. Further widening of activity of the repertoire committee 
and of the Section's magazine. For all these beginnings detailed 
plans have been worked out and on their basis an estimate has 
been drawn and already submitted to the Soviet. 



IV. Preservation of Art Objects 

The Documents presented under Part III showed the meth- 
ods used by the Soviet Government to popularize the study and 
production of contemporary art; Part IV contains documents 
to illustrate the piety with which the Soviets .approach the art 
of the past, as preserved in museums, and the affectionate zeal 
with which they are safeguarding its treasures. Document No. 
21 is a lengthy general statement on activities in this direction 
covering a period of one month (May 28- June 28, 1918) ; Docu- 
ments No. 22 and No. 23 deal with individual famous collec- 
tions: the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, which is the subject of 
No. 23, is one of the most celebrated collections of recent paint- 
ings in Europe, including, among other fine things, many of the 
paintings of the famous Russian painter, Verestchagin (1842- 
1904). 

DOCUMENT No. 21 

The Activity of the Section of People's Commissariat of Edu- 
cation Devoted to the Care of Museums, Preservation 
of Art Objects and Relics of the Past, During 
the Period Beginning May 28th and 
Ending June 28th, 1918 

The Section in charge of museums and preservation of art 

49 



objects and relics of the past attached to the People's Commis- 
sariat of Education was instituted by the High State Committee 
of Education May 28th, 1918. The object of the Section in 
charge of museums, preservation of art treasures and relics of 
the past attached to the People's Commissariat of Education, is 
the finding of ways and means towards the creation of condi- 
tions favorable to the growth of Russian museums. 

In addition to this task it is also the Section's duty to take 
care and apply measures for the preservation of art objects and 
relics of the past. 

The immediate problem confronting the Section is the map- 
ping out of the standing types of museums and carrying this 
plan into effect through reorganization of the existing museums 
and establishment of new ones. Also, the Section's task is the 
unification of activities of individual museums, introduction of 
a well-defined system into their activity, drawing up of general 
principles governing the State's museum policy and carrying it 
out into execution. Each year the Section presents a general 
museum plan and a common museum estimate, completed in con- 
formity with reports and suggestions submitted by all museums 
and elaborating it by corrections and supplements necessary from 
the point of view of general State interest. 

The Section intends to devote its foremost attention to the 
question of museum accessions. Preserving for the museums 
their right of purchase at their own initiative, within the limits 
of annual estimate appropriations, the Section advances the idea 
of creating a National Museum Fund which would enable us to 
obtain, on a large scale, individual works as well as complete 
collections, in full conformity with the needs of individual 
museums, as well as of the whole museum undertaking, thus put- 
ting an end to the mutual competition among the museums, so 
detrimental to the interests of the State. 

In connection with this there also ought to function special 
exhibition places of the Museum Fund, wherein the Section's 
accessions might be subjected to a free valuation and criticism 
by the whole people. 

There should be established an institute of "Correspondents," 
reporting to the Section on the condition of market, auctions, 
sales, possible accessions, and generally speaking, about every- 
thing pertaining to museum art; also, there should be estab- 

5Q 



lished an institute of "Purchasing Agents" sufficiently trained in 
the history of art. 

The Section intends to widely utilize the special commissions 
for purposes of art-archeologic discoveries, investigations of 
architectural styles, restoration work, uncovering of frescoes, etc. 
It has been planned to publish a special magazine devoted to the 
science of museums, and also to organize regular congresses of 
museum workers and to establish exemplary exhibitions demon- 
strating the process and development of the science of museums 
and activities thereof. It has been also planned to rearrange the 
art treasures in the museums with the view of endowing each 
museum with greater value and individuality and abolishing the 
existing chaos and dullness. 

The Section considers the immediate problem of our times 
the establishment of a number of museums in those fields of art 
which in Russia have heretofore been wholly neglected, for 
instance, a museum of Oriental Art, a, museum of the most 
recent art and a museum of sculpture. 

Special attention will be given by the Section to the provincial 
museums. The establishment of new museums in the localities 
and a wholehearted support of those functioning, is, in the opinion 
of the Sections, one of the most fundamental problems of the 
Russian museum policy. Another such pressing problem is 
democratization and popularization of the museums' activities, 
which can be accomplished at first by making the attendance of 
the museums easier and by the aid which a museum can render 
to the spectators during the study of collections through lectures 
or lecture cycles. 

The object of the Section shall have been considered completed 
by a thoroughly drawn up program of excursions and tours 
within the reach of the masses of the people ; and by the widest 
distribution of carefully executed reproductions and popular edi- 
tions on art subjects. 

Also, regarding scientific art works, the Section will meet the 
museums' needs in the sphere of technique and budget for the 
purpose of advancing, in the best possible way, the Science of 
Museums — a science so young in Russia. For this purpose each 
museum will be given an opportunity to have photographic 
archives, a library of an informative character, and specially 
fitted technical shops wherever needed ; photographic, restorative, 

51 



framing, bindings, carpentry, and so forth, with a corresponding 
technical personnel at their service. 

As regards protection of art objects and relics of the past the 
first and immediate problem of the Section is the drawing of 
regulations designed to thwart the export of art treasures from 
the territory of the Russian Republic. 

The drawing up of such legislative measures though incom- 
plete and, so to say, temporary, should be immediately com- 
menced by the Section in order to safeguard the country's art 
treasures which are threatened to forever disappear abroad. 

Next to this must be instituted a careful scientific account and 
description of these treasures, without which — as the State 
Museum policy of Italy has shown — the realization of the afore- 
said problems cannot be accomplished. 

Those institutions and persons who are in possession of col- 
lections of great cultural value will receive from the Section 
projective charters. 

Flying detachments will be dispatched to the localities in 
order to bring about an actual control of the "disappearing" art 
valuables from the provinces. An instruction concerning protec- 
tion shall be drawn up. The Section shall protect not only State 
and public museums, but also all private collections in so far as 
they present a State-wide interest. 

Finally, its most important function, without which it would, 
generally speaking, be impossible to realize a State-wide program 
for a Museum Policy, will be its contact with the province. The 
Section will effect a close contact with the local organs, propose 
the organization of local organs of analogous functions, thus 
creating throughout Russia a net of cultural institutions which 
shall actually carry through in life the instructions of the central 
directing organ at the People's Commissariat of Education. 

Already prior to the official establishment of the Collegium in 
charge of museums and preservation of art objects and relics of 
the past, the question of nationalization of the Tretiakov Gallery 
had been discussed at the initiative of the present Collegium's 
membership. 

For a long time a contradiction was apparent between the 
formal status of the Gallery as a regional-municipal art treasury 
and the all-Russian artistic and scientific reputation it has long 

52 



enjoyed — a reputation which has been growing from year to year. 
When attempts by reactionary currents in art to profit by such 
state of affairs were recently revealed, the problem connected 
with the Gallery became important. The initiative of the Col- 
legium's membership met with the most enthusiastic reception 
from the People's Commissary, A. V. Lunacharsky, who sub- 
mitted this problem for discussion to the Soviet of People's Com- 
missaries, and on June 3rd, 1918, the latter body issued a decree 
on the nationalization of the Tretiakov Gallery, placing the Gal- 
lery under jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Educa- 
tion. Finally, on June 17th, 1918, in accordance with a proposal 
unanimously submitted by the Petrograd and Moscow sections 
of the Collegium in charge of museums, the well-known artist and 
museum expert, J. E. Grabar, was appointed director of 
the Tretiakov Gallery by the People's Commissary, A. 
Lunacharsky. 

Similarly at the initiative of the Museums' Collegium a ques- 
tion was raised on the necessity to requisition a Botticelli (Tonto) 
painting belonging to the citizen, Mrs. E. P. Meschersky. It was 
reported that the painting was to be shipped abroad. 

The matter was brought to the attention of the Soviet of 
People's Commissaries, which on May 30th, 1918, decreed to 
requisition this painting and declare it property of the Russian 
Socialist Federated Soviet Republic and place it in one of the 
national museums of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet 
Republic. At present the Botticelli picture is exhibited at the 
Rumiantzev Museum. 

The same instruction directs the People's Commissariat of 
Education to draw, within a period of three days, a plan of a 
decree prohibiting shipment from the territory of the Russian 
Socialist Federated Soviet Republic of pictures and generally of 
all great artistic treasures — this plan to be submitted for examina- 
tion to the Soviet of People's Commissaries. 

The Collegium has also obtained an appropriation of 250,000 
rubles for the needs of the Rumiantzev Museum. This sum is 
to be spent for purchasing historically important art treasures 
which appear now in abundance on the market and which are 
irretrievably lost by being smuggled abroad. 

Besides, the Section has commenced to execute (and partially 
has already executed) a number of commissions of artistic and 

53 



scientific character. In this field the immediate concern has been 
the examination of ancient fresco works and iconography. The 
results are as follows : 

1. At the Salvation-Adroniev Monastery, the walls of the 
cathedral at several places have been scraped from the old time 
white-washing. Ancient frescoes have, been discovered but so 
damaged by late coatings that it is impossible to define the nature 
and subject of these frescoes. 

2. At the Church of Conception of Saint Anna (in the so- 
called Chinese Town) built in 1493, a priest was the source of a 
statement purporting to prove the existence of ancient frescoes 
screened from sight by the wall's plaster; no frescoes were dis- 
covered after a careful examination. An iconostasis and some 
ikons examined incidentally have been found to be of very ancient 
origin and of great importance and, therefore, subject to 
restoration. 

3. At the Blagovyeschensk Cathedral of the Kreml, follow- 
ing the washing and cleaning of mural paintings, several ancient 
frescoes have been discovered. 

4. At the Assumption Cathedral it has been decided to con- 
tinue the already begun restoration work of some of the ancient 
ikons of the iconostasis. It has also been decided to directly 
supervise the restoration of mural decorations. 

5. At the Archangel's Kreml Cathedral several ancient ikons 
have been singled out for the purpose of their complete restora- 
tion. 

The restoration work is being directed by experienced prom- 
inent iconogr.aphers and supervised by the members of the Col- 
legium and its associates (Grabar, Baklanov, Grischendo, 
Annisimov, Muratov). Iconographers : Tuilin, Chirikov, Youkin 
and photographer — Liadov. 

A special committee, elected by the Collegium and composed 
of J. E. Grabar, T. C. Trapeznikov, V. R. Vipper and M. M. 
Chusid, after an examination of the Great Kreml Palace, have 
found there a few paintings of great artistic value. Owing to 
extremely unsatisfactory conditions, affecting their safety at the 
Palace, and also because of their inaccessibility for the larger 
masses of the people, the committee, pending the question of 
their transfer to the Rumiantzev Museum, has in the mean- 

54 



time transferred 26 paintings for the purpose of restoration. 
Of special prominence among the latter are the Rubens canvasses. 

The Collegium's activities outside Moscow have been demon- 
strated by the following measures: 

A detailed plan of transferring the universally known 
Uvarov Collections to the Moscow Historical Museum has been 
drawn up. Competent persons for this commission have been 
appointed. 

At the initiative of Comrade Vikensiev, fellow-member of the 
Collegium, it has been decided to undertake a scientific expedi- 
tion for the purpose of examining the Burilinsk Museum at 
Ivanov-Voznesensk. 

The Section has paid especial attention to requests coming 
from different localities and striving to immediately effect con- 
nections and contact with provincial organizations pursuing 
similar aims. 

In order to arrive at a uniform science and art policy in this 
field at the present time — a specimen instruction is in course of 
preparation for the establishment of local Collegiums in charge of 
museums and preservation of art objects and relics of the past. 

Of the broad cultural measures introduced through the ini- 
tiative of the Section the transference of the famous Stroganov 
archive to the Perm State University deserves mention. The 
well-known specialist, Professor Grekov, has taken charge of 
scientific examination of the archive. 

Of the important concrete measures to be carried out by the 
Section in the nearest future deserves mention : a decision to in- 
vestigate the Moscow governmental and public institution with 
the object of determining the character of art objects treasured 
up therein; investigation of the antiquarian market; organiza- 
tion of new sub-sections, as for an example, librarian, etc. 

DOCUMENT No. 22 

Paintings at the Former Kremlin 

The Collegium in charge of museums and preservation of 
art objects and relics of the past attached to the People's Com- 
missariat of People's Education has entrusted to a special com- 
mittee the examination of the picture gallery at the former 
Kremlin which heretofore has been hardly accessible. 

55 



The picture arrangements on the Gallery's walls does not 
meet the most elementary museum requirements. Without any 
system the paintings have been permanently set into the walls and 
are separated from each other by only a narrow framework, 
which arrangement makes an intelligent examination of the 
Gallery impossible. Besides, many pictures, owing to differences 
in atmospheric conditions, have suffered considerably: they have 
shown cracks and in many places paints have deteriorated — all 
this threatening to ruin the pictures. The system ot cataloguing 
the artists was arbitrary; for instance, paintings of the Nether- 
lands school were ascribed to Italian masters; first-class works 
were left unclassified, while second-rate things were ascribed to 
first-class masters. 

The Collegium has decided to remove from the Palace's 
Gallery paintings interesting from the point of view of scientific 
examination, and transfer them to the gallery of the Rumiantzev 
Museum where the paintings, after restoration and investigation, 
might be exhibited for popular examination. 

Special mention is made of a few pictures of the Rembrandt 
School, two Netherlands primitives, one Florentine portrait of 
the 16th century, a sketch by Rubens, and finally a number of 
paintings by Italian masters of the 17th century. 

DOCUMENT No. 23 

Decree on Nationalization of Tretiakov Gallery 

Whereas, the Moscow Municipal Art Gallery — foundation of P. 
& S. M. Tretiakovs — in the domain or art and culture has risen to 
the level of an institution carrying out State-wide educational func- 
tions; and that the interests of the working-class demand that the 
Tretiakov's Gallery become one of the State museums whose activities 
have been under the direction of th? People's Commissariat of Educa- 
tion — the Soviet of People's Commissaires decrees: 

1. The Moscow Municipal Art Gallery, founded of P. & S. M. 
Tretiakovs, be declared State property of the Soviet Republic and 
placed under jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Education, 
subject to same regulations governing the rest of State Museums. 

2. The Collegium in charge of the museums and preservations 
of art objects and relics of the past attached to the People's Com- 
missariat of Education is to speedily draw up and put in operation 
the new regulation concerning the management of the Gallery and 
its activity in accordance with present day museum requirements and 

56 



problems of democratization of art, educational institutions of the 
Russian Soviet Republic. 

Chairman of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, 

V. J. Ulianov (Lenin). 

Chief Clerk, Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich. 

Secretary, N. P. Gorbunov. 

The Soviet Government, as the reader will observe if he re- 
fers to Document No. 1, above, — discovered that the bourgeoisie 
was selling :ts works of art and also looting public collections and 
selling their paintings to foreign collectors. As this was hostile 
to the artistic interests of the proletariat, the exportation of a>t 
objects was prohibited (Document No. 24) ; but in another field, 
the Soviet Government was eager to part with art objects, namely, 
such as had been taken by conquest or other dishonest means, 
from Poland, and, with this object in view, a census of such 
objects in Russian museums was undertaken (Document No. 25 ). 

DOCUMENT No. 24 
Concerning Export of Art Objects 

The Collegium of the Commissariat of Education has passed 
a decree prohibiting the export and sale of art objects and relics 
abroad and laid it before the Soviet of People's Commissaries. 

The Museum Section is preparing an instruction concerning 
this prohibition and elucidating the decree. 

The Section invites representatives of the Comm'ssariat and 
Custom House Department, with a view of cooperating in the 
solution of problems connected with the practical realization of 
the decree. 

DOCUMENT No. 25 

MOSCOW 

Governmental Enactments 

From ihe Commissariat in charge of pioperties of the Rus- 
treasuries of the Russian Federated Soviet Republic. 

To all museums, palaces, galleries and other art and science 
treasuries of the Russian Soviets Federated Republic. 

57 



(Circular) 

Attached is a copy of the Order No. 594, dated April 6th, 1918. 
The people's commissaires of education and in charge of properties 
of the Republic advise to begin the transference to the Polish Com- 
missariat, in the People's Commissariat in charge of affairs of all 
nationalities, of all objects mentioned in the aforesaid order, and at 
present in the possession of the said treasury, after a preliminary 
description and examination of the inventory of property evacuated 
during the period of the war. 

Fixing no definite date for the return to Polish toiling masses 
of objects of art, science, and culture, removed from Poland before 
the present war at different dates, the People's Commissariats of 
education and in charge of properties of the Republic advise all the 
museums, palaces, libraries and other art and science treasuries of 
the Russian Soviet Federated Republic to immediately begin the 
preparation of a complete inventory of the above-mentioned objects, 
in co-operation with the representatives of the liquidation committee 
in charge of the affairs of the former Polish Kingdom and now 
functioning at the Polish Commissariat. 

Xo accomplish this aim, it is necessary to establish — with the 
consent of the liquidation committee in charge of the affairs of the 
former Polish Kingdom — at each treasury mixed sub-committees com- 
posed of two representatives from the liquidation committee and said 
treasury. The sub-committee's object is the preparation of a com- 
plete inventory, of articles in possession of said treasury place, origin- 
ally belonging to Poland, setting down the history of how these 
articles came into possession of said treasury institution, and to define 
whether these articles were transferred from Poland to Russia by 
way of seizure or regular commercial transactions. 

People's Commissary of Education, Lunacharsky. 

Secretary, Leschenko. 

In charge of the People's Commissariat of Properties 
of the Republic, Malinovsky. 

Secretary, Kaufman. 

DOCUMENT No. 26 

National Factory for Manufacturing Paints 

Owing to an acute shortage of paints on the markets, the 
Moscow Art Collegium has decided to establish its own factory 
for manufacturing paints, with an experimental laboratory 
attached. 

The establishment of such a factory will no doubt play an 
important part since Germany, possessing in abundance all kinds 
of chemical products, may, as soon as commercial relations are 

58 



renewed, flood the Russian market with its paints, which, by the 
way, are of lower quality as compared with those of England and 
France. 



V. The Theatre as a Means of Culture 

In addition to what is contained in Document No. 20 (page 
68) on this subject, we add Documents Nos. 27, 28, 29 and 30, 
which show conclusively that the theatre is to be made, in Soviet 
Russia, a part of the esthetic life of the whole population. 

DOCUMENT NO. 27 
The Repertoire Committee of the Art-Educational Section 

The object of the Repertoire Committee is first, the drawing 
up of a repertoire for district theatres, and secondly, the prep- 
aration of a list of plays for workmen's theatres. 

In the opinion of the Committee the following principles must 
underlie the preparation of the repertoire: 1) plays on the 
repertoire list must be artistic creations and adapted to the needs 
of the theatrical art; 2) they should heighten and strengthen the 
revolutionary spirit of the masses; 3) they should be optimistic 
in spirit. 

Owing to the insistent and continual requests from localities 
a preliminary list has been prepared including the following 
Russian and foreign dramatists. 

Russian — Gogol, Griboyedov, Shackovsky, Ostrovsky, Leo 
Tolstoi, Turgenov, Tchechov, Suchovo-Kobulin, Shchedrin, 
Gorky, A. Tolstoi. 

Foreign — Calderon, Lope de Vega, Cervantes, Shakespeare, 
Beaumarchais, Moliere, Schiller, Blanche, Ibsen, Shaw, Romain 
Rolland, Verhaeren, Delle-Grazie, Mirbeau, Hauptmann. 

The plays approved by the Committee will contain short 
reviews, written by the members of the Committee containing: 
a) plot and central idea of the play, 2) characterization of 
the stage personages, 3) possible cuts and change of scenes, 4) 
illustrative points on scenery and costumes (preferably accom- 

59 



parried by outline drawings). These reviews will be later pub- 
lished by the Committee as separate leaflets. 

Besides, the Committee is preparing for publication a number 
of books on the theatre. The subjects of these books are: 1) 
stage-craft, 2) scenic decorations, 3) the art of make-up, 4) 
costumes, 5) rhythm gymnastics, 6) drama and opera, 7) studio 
work, 8) working over of assigned parts. 

DOCUMENT No. 23 

Concerning the Transference of All Theatres into the Hands 
of the Moscow Soviet of Workmen's Deputies 

1. It has been decided that the right of renting of theatrical 
buildings be exercised by the Moscow Soviet. 

2. The question of exploitation of theatrical buildings and sup- 
pression of any kind of intermediary agency work in the exploitation 
of said buildings, should be laid for discussion before the Land and 
Housing Section. 

Presidium of the Moscow Soviet of Workmen's Deputies. 

DOCUMENT No. 29 
Theatrical Section 

The pedagogic division of the Theatrical Section attached to 
the Commissariat of People's Education is at work now on a 
plan of establishing a whole system of theatrical schools in Rus- 
sia (these schools already function throughout Soviet Russia. 
Translator's note.) Dramatic schools (State and private) are 
divided into lower and secondary schools. In the lower grade is 
taught the technique of dramatic art : diction and gesture. In 
the secondary schools the pupils receive instruction at the 
"studios" of individual teachers. The main object is to develop 
the individual capacities of each student. These schools also 
teach general science with the aid of lectures and laboratory 
research. A Theatrical Academy will be at the head of this chain 
of schools where art will be taught chiefly from a theoretical 
standpoint. 

The Theatrical Section at the Commissariat of Education has 
established instructors' courses where stagecraft will be taught. 

The object being to interest new forces and talents in creative 

60 



craftsmanship, the instructors' courses will train specialists on 
stagecraft : stage managers, scenic artists, property men, me- 
chanics and electricians. 

The two-months' course of instruction will include not only 
lectures on art and technique but also handling of practical prob- 
lems closely connected with them. The studies will be conducted 
at the premises of the Theatrical Section and at the Communal 
and State theatres and studios. Studies and instruction are under 
the direction of the following persons : 

V. E. Meirhold, stagecraft science; M. P. Zandin (scenic 
decorator of the Maryinsky Theatre), scenic decoration; S. A. 
Yevsejev (director of properties shops of the Maryinsky "Thea- 
tre), properties studios; F. P. Graff (technical director of the 
Maryinsky Theatre), stage technique; F. M. Paschuk, master- 
electrician in charge of electrical work. 

No fees are charged for the lecture course and instruction. 

DOCUMENT No. 30 
Theatrical Performances at Shops and Factories 

Many shops, factories and plants in Moscow give their own 
performances. These performances, though of an amateur 
character, are a source of inspiration to the workers of local fac- 
tories who are the actors at these performances. 

Especially successful were performances at the Einem 
Chocolate factory. 

Performances have also been given at Zindel's shops, 
Prokhorov's Dry Goods, etc. At the latter even dramatic art 
courses have been opened for workers wishing to receive 
dramatic education. — A news item in a Moscow paper. 



VI. Music and Musical Training 

In addition to much that is found, on this subject, in Docu- 
ment No. 20 (page 00), we present here two Documents (No. 
31 and No. 32) illustrative of the manner in which musical 
study and musical creation are stimulated in Soviet Russia. 

61 



DOCUMENT No. 31 
Degree Regarding the 'Moscow and Petrograd Conservatories 

The Soviet of People's Commissaires decrees: 

The Petrograd and Moscow Conservatories are entrusted to the 
care of the People's Commissariat of Education on an equal basis 
with all other higher educational institutions, thus dissociating them 
from the Russian Musical Society. All the properties and inventories 
of said conservatories, indispensable and adopted for purposes of 
State Musical Reconstruction, are declared state property of the 
people. 

Chairman of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, 

V. Ulianov (Lenin), 

People's Commissary of Education, 
A. Lunacharsky. 

Chief Clerk of the Soviet of People's Commissaires, 
Vladimir Bonch-Bruevich. 

Moscow, July 12th, 1918. 

DOCUMENT No. 32 

A New Anthem 

The section for the promotion of proletarian culture — "The 
Proletariat" — has announced a competitive examination for a 
text and music of a "new and original revolutionary proletarian 
hymn." 



VII. Public Intellectual Propaganda 

Document No. 33 presents an enormous program destined to 
familiarize the entire Russian people with the literary works of 
the past, while Document No. 34 shows that the Soviet Govern- 
ment is also seeking, in more modest ways, to keep the names of 
the nation's great constantly in the minds of the inhabitants. 

DOCUMENT No. 33 

Facts About the Activity of the Literary Publication Board* 
Attached to the People's Commissariat on Education 

On December 13th, 1917, at the session of the Literary Pub- 
lication Board a committee was named to draft a decree order- 

62 



ing the establishment of a Technical Board to take charge of 
state printing shops, including all those printing shops which had 
been nationalized after the October revolution. This committee 
was composed of representatives from the Literary Publication 
Board, from the Commissariat of Interior Printers' Trade 
Union and a committee of workers employed in state printing 
shops. 

In February, 1918, owing to energetic activity of the Soviet 
and representatives of the printing trades, publishing business 
on a large scale was made possible. The State Commission on 
Education made up a list of Russian novelists, men, poets and 
critics whose works were declared a state monopoly for 5 years. 
This list includes names of over 50 Russian classics such as: 
Soloyiev, M. Bakunin, V. Belinski, V. Garshin, A. Hertzen,' N. 
Gogol, F. Dostoyevsky, A. Koltzov, M. Lermontov, Nekrasov, A. 
Pushkin, L. Tolstoi J. Turgenev, A. Tchechov, and others. 

July 4th, at Moscow, there was established a committee on 
Literature and Art. Among its members are the writer V. 
Bruisov and V. Grabar, the painter. 

A committee was also formed to publish popular scientific 
books. This committee has two sections — political economy and 
natural science. The latter includes : Professors K. A. Timiriazov, 
A. K. Timiriazof, A. Michailov, Wolf, P. Walden, and others. 

A number of brochures (original and translations) have been 
already published by the committee, the subjects being: astron- 
omy, physics, meteorology, botany, pedagogy. As regards the 
publication of text-books the State Commission already, on Dec. 
4th, 1917, created a special commission to take charge of the 
work. 

A semi-annual appropriation of 12 million rubles has been 
granted to the Literary Publication Board. The appropriation 
for the second half year may reach 20 millions. 

DOCUMENT No. 34 

Memorial Plates for Propaganda Purposes 

At the Commissariat of Education, at the initiative of Lenin, 
a plan for employing memorial plates for propaganda purposes 
is being worked out at present. A selection of citations and 
slogans illustrating the moment will be made. These citations 

63 



will be engraved on stone or bronze plates and placed on the main 
thoroughfares of the cities. The best artists will be entrusted 
with the execution of the work. The unveiling of each of these 
memorial plates will be made a celebration with speeches, the 
text of the particular citation forming the theme. A musical 
program will also be a feature at these occasions. 

It has also been decided to erect at convenient points of the 
capitals monuments to great personages distinguished in the 
Russian and world revolutions. These monuments are proposed 
to be made not of everlasting bronze or marble, but rather to take 
the form of plaster and terra-cotta statues for propaganda pur- 
poses. At the base of each statue will be placed a stone-slab with 
a short biography of and quotations from its subject. 

The statues will be unveiled on Sundays and will be accom- 
panied by speeches bearing on the significance of the individual 
in question, reading of selected passages from his works and a 
musical program. The same evening at one of the main city 
theatres will be given either a performance or a concert in honor 
of the person celebrated. 

As a beginning it is proposed to erect statues of Radischev, 
Ryliev, Pestel, Belinsky, Dobroluibov, Tchernyshevsky and 
Nekrasov. 

Mr. Sherwood, sculptor, will direct the work. 

(Translator's note: The above-named publicists, philosophers, 
writers and poets, were the intellectual precursors of the revolutionary 
movement in Russia, active principally in the 1825-50 period. Tcherny- 
shevsky's famous work, "What's to be Done?" is a complete analysis 
of the intellectual currents of that period. — Sherwood is a common 
Russian name, of English origin:) 



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